


The Doctor's Dragon

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Category: Doctor Who, DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Epilogue Post-HtTYD: The Hidden World, Stealth Crossover, original alien race
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 53,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23560285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: An anomalous signal leads the Doctor and Turlough to a medieval Archipelago with a unique species in residence, leaving the Doctor to question his next course of action as he faces a threat that challenges history on several levels.
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson, The Doctor & Sullivan (Dragon OC)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	1. An Unusual Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> For timing purposes, this fic is set between the classic series episodes "Resurrection of the Daleks" and "Planet of Fire" for the Fifth Doctor (more specifically, shortly after the Past Doctor Adventures novel "Imperial Moon"), and towards the end of the second season of "Race to the Edge" for Hiccup and the Dragon Riders (the precise timing isn't important, so long as the Riders still have the Eye and are aware of the Grimborn siblings' Dragon Hunters while still considering the Hunters a manageable threat); enjoy.
> 
> In advance, if anyone wonders why I chose the Fifth Doctor rather than a more 'modern' Doctor, my reasons are twofold; firstly, setting this pre-Time War forces the Doctor to face a few issues that will come up later, and secondly, the Fifth Doctor is the only classic incarnation who I feel would be able to take his ego out of the equation and acknowledge when he doesn't know something, which will be important for him as he learns more about this situation.
> 
> For those who haven't heard of him, Kamelion was an android who originally 'belonged' to the Master, capable of shape-shifting into a range of appearances but programmed to automatically obey the strongest mind in his vicinity. The Doctor was able to take control of Kamelion in "The King's Demons", but various real-life issues with the prop used for Kamelion's 'real' form- including the death of the only person who knew how to operate it properly- meant that the only other episode he appeared in was "Planet of Fire", where he once again fell under the Master's control and asked the Doctor to destroy him. Spin-off media expanded on this, such as the novel "The Crystal Bucephalus" revealing that Kamelion chose to remain in the TARDIS to prevent himself being used against the Doctor in future after he was briefly forced to obey a ruthless criminal in the far future; "Imperial Moon" established that Kamelion tended to stay in his small room and link to the TARDIS's databanks to relive some of the Doctor's adventures.
> 
> Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.

If there was one thing Turlough had learned from Tegan, it was that the Doctor's ability to control the TARDIS was notoriously erratic.

Turlough freely admitted that the Doctor was generally good at getting the ship where he said it would go if there was ever a specific time and place he was attempting to visit, but even if he'd found Tegan difficult to get along with at times, he also knew that she had no reason to lie to him about something like that. Most of the time Turlough could attribute the Doctor's careless piloting as just his desire to wander causing him to let his fingers drift as he set the coordinates, but their recent trip to Earth's moon had reminded him just how rough things could get, after the disorientation caused by them crossing their 'temporal wake' and the Doctor initiating a dematerialisation after the fortress's explosion threw the ship into space.

With those recent examples in mind, Turlough was far from surprised when he was roused from his attempt to get some actual sleep by a strange jolt in his stomach, as though something had suddenly pulled him and the TARDIS to his left. Quick getting out of bed, Turlough pulled on his uniform and ran for the console room, unsurprised to find the Doctor thoughtfully studying the controls.

"What is it this time?" he asked the Time Lord. Even as he entered the console room, he was pleasantly surprised to note that the ship had already returned to its normal flight pattern, which at least affirmed that the recent shake hadn't just been another case of the ship crossing its temporal wake once again.

"Some kind of signal was detected by the telepathic circuits," the Doctor replied, still staring at the console with more intensity than Turlough was used to seeing from the Time Lord when the TARDIS was this stable. "It's strange; it's not something I've encountered before, but there is something familiar about it…"

"Familiar in what way?" Turlough asked.

"It's hard to be sure…" the Doctor said, before the ship suddenly shook once again, this time with the familiar sound of materialisation. "But it probably caused that."

"It made us materialise?"

"It's possible, certainly," the Doctor affirmed as he turned to the console with renewed interest. "When the signal linked to the TARDIS's telepathic circuits, it must have triggered a response that drew the old girl to these coordinates."

"And these coordinates are… where?" Turlough asked.

"Interesting…" the Doctor responded, his expression shifting from interested to a more focused curiosity.

"In what way?"

"We appear to be on a small island that's part of an archipelago of similarly-sized islands in Earth's northern hemisphere," the Doctor explained, looking thoughtfully at the monitor as it went from its previously blank state to displaying what Turlough presumed was an aerial map of their current location. Assuming that the blue background represented the sea, Turlough presumed that they were on one of the many small islands scattered around this area, but it was obviously hard to be sure of anything from this distance.

"That's… nice?" Turlough said, unsure what about this scenario had particularly captured the Doctor's interest.

"Oh, they're pleasant enough, but that's not the main point that's captured my attention right now," the Doctor explained, looking at the small screen with a smile. "To give you more context, this particular archipelago is located in the Scandinavian region, chronologically around… well, even without consulting the yearometer, we seem to be in the early half of the eleventh century."

"Really?" Turlough looked curiously at the Doctor. "Is there anything… significant about these islands at that time?"

"Apart from the fact that I didn't know they existed, no."

"You didn't know that an entire set of _islands_ were here?" Turlough repeated, surprised at both the scale of the statement and the Doctor's relative lack of reaction to it.

"In the sense that I've never seen them on any maps of Earth made after this date, anyway," the Doctor clarified, thoughtfully studying the screen as he contemplated the reasons for this development. "Admittedly, climate change and other factors could have simply destroyed these islands before anyone bothered to put them on official maps that would matter to anyone else in the future, but add in that signal that brought us down here and it has inspired my interest…"

"And that signal should also inspire concern, Doctor," a third voice said.

"Kamelion?" the Doctor looked up in surprise at the silver figure standing at the door that led to the TARDIS interior. "Not that it isn't pleasant to see you, but what are you doing here?"

"I… sensed something, Doctor," Kamelion replied in his usual electronic voice.

"Sensed something?" Turlough repeated, curious at what could have prompted their android companion to leave his self-imposed exile of his own accord. "Like what?"

"I… cannot explain it," Kamelion said uncertainly. "I have told you of the psychic screams I sensed when I learned that life in the crater was dying?"

"You did," the Doctor nodded thoughtfully.

"When I was linked to the TARDIS's telepathic circuits, as we passed through the vortex, I became aware that the ship has sensed something… similarly intense."

"Similarly intense?" Turlough repeated, intrigued despite himself. "You mean that same signal that drew us here was like that… what you sensed in the park?"

"That is the closest analogy I can provide, but I cannot define it any more clearly, save for confirming that this signal was not a scream," Kamelion looked at Turlough with as much apology as his default face would allow him to show. "Where the scream was simply the life in the crater entering its death throes, this signal was a summons of great power… not unlike that which I felt when in the presence of my creators."

"Your creators?" The Doctor looked at Kamelion with renewed concern. "Could this be-?"

"It is not them, Doctor," Kamelion looked reassuringly at the Time Lord. "If my creators were here, then I would already be back under their influence. The signal I detect is strong, but focused, as though it is intended to impose its will over a very specific life-form; this may account for how I have sensed the call but retain my loyalty to you."

"I see…" the Doctor nodded thoughtfully, before he turned back to the monitor with a smile. "Well then, shall we see what's out there?"

As the Doctor adjusted a couple of switches on the TARDIS console, the view on the scanner changed from an overhead view of various islands to a more focused view of an island coastline. Turlough was surprised to see that, despite the Doctor's description of their current location being in the Scandinavian region, the island actually looked rather warm and sunny, as opposed to the snow he would have expected.

"Rather pleasant, all things considered," the Doctor smiled thoughtfully, before he ran another scan. "No sign of anything too out of the ordinary on the island itself, but there's no harm in taking a look; Kamelion, considering the nature of the signal…"

"I understand, Doctor," Kamelion nodded at the Time Lord as the Doctor reached for the door control. "I will take action if I sense anything has changed."

With that decision reached, the Doctor opened the door and walked out of the TARDIS, Turlough rolling his eyes in resignation as he followed his friend out of the ship.

Once outside the TARDIS, despite his own concerns about whatever had drawn them here, Turlough had to admit that the location seemed pleasant enough at first glance. The area was maybe a little chillier than he might have liked, but after their close call on the Moon, Turlough conceded that any temperature greater than freezing was an improvement, and at this point the air was basically just brisk rather than explicitly cold. The sun shone brightly in the sky above, the trees were thick without being so dense as to potentially hide any further predators, and the scent of sea air was a refreshing change of pace after the consistently artificial tropical environment of the park.

"So is there-?" Turlough began, before a strange roar filled the air. "Oh no…"

"This way," the Doctor said, briskly turning in the direction of the roar.

"Doctor, can't we just-?"

"That wasn't the roar of a hunter catching our scent, Turlough, that was the roar of something large in pain," the Doctor clarified as he walked. "It was also the roar of something I didn't recognise from this time period, which means we may have just found part of the mystery that drew us here in the first place…"

"Do you ever question how you just end up getting dropped into things like this all the time?" Turlough asked as he followed the seemingly young man.

"I learned to stop questioning that a long time ago," the Doctor smiled. "Whether it's because history needs me to help it along, the Time Lords need me to stop something, or it's just sheer chance, these days it's easier to do what I do best and work it all out from there."

Despite his own apprehension, Turlough had to concede that the Doctor had a point; they had certainly had a few trips that could be considered pleasant to balance out the fear and death of other excursions, even if they made more dangerous trips than leisurely ones. In any case, based on Turlough's experience of the Doctor, the best thing he could do right now was follow his friend's example and enjoy the surroundings before they found themselves facing whatever new threat existed here.

After a few minutes of walking, the two men reached the beach, at which point Turlough saw the source of the noise and found himself staring in awe at the creature in question, even his own natural cynicism finding it hard not to be impressed at this latest twist.

Superficially, the creature was a large blue lizard lying near the coastline, an uncommon sight on Earth but something that could theoretically be found on other planets. It was partially wrapped in what Turlough could only call a net, even if it was clearly made of metal and had a few glowing lights on it at various points along its links. The creature itself had blue skin of a shade that reminded Turlough of the TARDIS, large fan-like horns on its head, a long neck that seemed to turn in every direction, and a small pair of fins were visible through the net at its main body. What made this creature particularly distinctive, however, was the pair of large blue wings on either side of its body; the right wing was trapped by the net, but whoever had tried to catch this creature had partially missed the left wing, which was extended outwards through a gap in the net, in a manner that put Turlough in mind of a hand scrambling for a grip on a loose surface.

"A _dragon_ …" the Doctor whispered, eyes wide with his usual boyish glee at making an unexpected discovery.

"A _dragon_?" Turlough repeated incredulously. "How is- I'm sorry, did we fall into an alternate timeline or something?"

"No," the Doctor said, shaking his head as he thoughtfully studied the creature. "I considered that for a moment, but there are signs of such a transition that I would have detected… and this creature does seem slightly smaller than the last time I encountered a dragon in our universe…"

"Last time?"

"It was a colony world that had access to a remarkable nanobot network; part of the network unwittingly created real dragons and gave them the energy necessary for beings of that size to fly and generate fire in the first place," the Doctor explained, as he carefully made his way towards the downed dragon. "It's obviously hard to be certain in these circumstances, but I don't think this dragon is quite that large…"

Apparently only just becoming aware of their presence, the dragon suddenly raised its head and hissed at the Doctor and Turlough, followed by it suddenly spraying them with a burst of steaming water that the two only just managed to avoid by diving to either side of the blast.

"Right," Turlough said, weighing his options and deciding to look unthreatening by staying on the ground as he looked at the dragon. "I don't suppose you'd accept my suggestion that we just leave it?"

"And let such a remarkable creature die because we were afraid to help it?" the Doctor protested.

"Of course not…" Turlough said, rolling his eyes as he saw the Doctor carefully get to his feet once again, arms raised in a placating manner.

Still… for all his protests, Turlough was glad that they weren't leaving just yet; even if he wasn't from Earth himself, he'd heard enough about dragons in his time at Brandon to enjoy the concept, and in his own way, he was just as intrigued as the Doctor to learn what an actual _dragon_ was doing here…


	2. Strange Men

Fishlegs was never sure if Hiccup gave him these kind of assignments to help him grow as a person or punish him for some past act. He understood Hiccup's argument that there was likely to be a connection between the recent dragon migrations they'd witnessed going by the Edge and the relatively rowdy behaviour of their own dragons, and he understood that someone had to investigate it, but he just wished it hadn't been his turn to work with the twins on this particular patrol flight. Admittedly, the twins had been relatively tame to work with so far barring the occasional shoving match, but he was sure it would only be a matter of time before-

The sound of an unfamiliar roar from a nearby island cut off Fishlegs' train of thought. He barely had to open his mouth before Meatlug was already turning around to fly towards the island in question, Barf and Belch close behind him as the twins began their familiar debate about how dangerous this particular dragon was going to be.

"For the love of-" Fishlegs muttered to himself as they rounded a corner, only for him to bring Meatlug to an abrupt halt at the sight in front of him.

" _Whoa_!" Tuffnut's voice yelled from behind him, Fishlegs glancing around just in time to see the Zippleback round the corner and nearly fly directly into Meatlug's tail, the Gronckle only just ascending out of the way in time.

"What was-?" Ruffnut began as Barf and Belch regained control of themselves and came to a halt, allowing the twins to see what had caught Fishlegs' attention. As they'd approached the island they'd only seen a series of rock formations around the edge of it, much like the area where Hiccup had experimented with his original flight-suit just before they'd rescued the new Speed Stinger, but after flying around that last corner the three were now looking at a secluded beach that led up to a relatively thick forest for such a small island. The most important thing about the beach, however, was the two men in unusual clothing standing over a large blue dragon wrapped in a strange silver net, the net lying a short distance from the sea.

Fishlegs couldn't immediately identify the dragon, but if those men were part of the hunters (and what other reason was there for anyone to be in this area if they weren't hunting dragons?)…

"Going in," he said to the twins in a low voice, only to realise his mistake after he'd given the order and the twins flew past him, green gas already spreading from Barf's mouth as Belch's head drew back-

" _Doctor_!" one of the men on the beach yelled, looking anxiously up at the descending dragon. As the other man glanced up, he quickly got to his feet, raising his hands to wave urgently at the Riders.

"Wait!" the fair-haired man said, desperation so obvious in his voice that Fishlegs actually brought Meatug to a halt a short distance away from the other man. "I appreciate how this might look, but I assure you that we had _nothing_ to do with this; we found this dragon trapped when we arrived!"

"Really?" the twins said, looking at him with their usual exaggerated scepticism even as Barf and Belch took up a hovering position alongside Fishlegs, the gas apparently dissipated before Belch could trigger the necessary spark.

"Of course!" the man protested, lowering his hands as he indicated the net. "My… apprentice and I just discovered this creature after we reached this island; we were actually trying to take the net _off_ when you found us!"

Fishlegs thought he saw the red-haired man hiss something at the other man, but for the moment he was more concerned with re-assessing his initial assessment of what he'd just seen. He admitted that he might have reacted a bit too hastily when he saw a dragon in trouble, but when Fishlegs paused to think about it, the blonde man _had_ looked like he was more concerned with examining the dragon's trap then trying to take it somewhere else…

"So you're not with the Hunters?" Tuffnut asked.

"Hunters?" the redhead repeated.

"I assume we're talking about dragon hunters?" the fair-haired man inquired, even as the three riders began to slowly move towards the ground; Fishlegs was still going to wait until he was sure these men weren't a threat, but so far he was starting to trust them. "As in, there are enough dragons to make such a profession worthwhile? Beyond these three, I mean?"

"Duh," Ruffnut affirmed. "What kind of idiot starts working as a hunter when there are only three things to catch?"

"A fair point," the fair-haired man nodded at her. "I don't suppose you could tell me more about this dragon here… and what species of dragons are these, anyway?"

"Hideous Zippleback," the twins said simultaneously as they indicated Barf and Belch.

"Meatlug here is a Gronckle," Fishlegs added, before looking uncertainly at the trapped dragon. "And that one… I mean, I've only read about them, and that's through a _very_ tricky medium, but I think… I _think_ that's a Tide Glider."

"Tide Glider?" the redhead looked at the blue dragon in surprise. "Are you saying that this thing is a _swimming_ dragon?"

"It can swim or fly," Fishlegs nodded, only realising when he felt the slight thump that Meatlug had landed. "That's part of what makes it a Tidal-class dragon; I also read that it's meant to attack with boiling water rather than the usual fire, but I repeat that I've never actually _seen_ one before now…"

"Really?" the fair-haired man said, before looking apologetically at Fishlegs as the Viking got off his dragon. "You know, before we take this any further, I feel we should introduce ourselves; I'm the Doctor, and this is my… apprentice, Turlough."

"Doctor?" Fishlegs looked at the man uncertainly.

"It's my title," the Doctor explained. "It's… a part of my culture; once we become adults, we forsake our birth name to reflect our dedication to our chosen cause."

"Like dedicating yourself to a god?" Ruffnut asked, grinning slightly at the man as she and her brother walked up to join Fishlegs, Barf and Belch looking curiously at the two new faces from behind Meatlug.

"Essentially, I suppose," the Doctor nodded, before he turned back to the dragon behind them. "In any case, if there are any of those hunters you mentioned around, it would probably be a good idea for us to get this net off and take this dragon somewhere safe as soon as possible; do you have something that could cut it?"

"Maybe…" Fishlegs said, walking back to Meatlug and examining his bag before he pulled out the Gronckle Iron sword Gobber had given him when they'd first discovered the substance. "How about this?"

"Impressive weapon," the Doctor nodded politely at Fishlegs before he stepped aside to indicate the dragon. "If you-"

Before the Doctor could finish his sentence, the Tide Glider turned its head to face them and fired another blast of water in their direction, Fishlegs only realising that he'd dropped the sword after he had dived out of the way. Before he could get back to his feet, he looked up to see that the Doctor had grabbed the sword as it fell, the older man diving forward in an awkward roll that brought him up close to the bound blue dragon, where it was easy for him to stick the sword into the net and cut it. The net was large enough that the sword obviously couldn't take it completely apart in one go, but it did enough damage for the Tide Glider's trapped wings to do the rest, the remaining links not enough to keep the dragon contained on their own.

Now freed from the net, the Tide Glider's body spread out, revealing a long tail with a fan-like shape on its end, along with small fins on its side that looked a little like arms. Supporting itself on its front fins, the creature looked around the beach for a moment before its gaze settled on the Doctor, who tossed the sword aside and held his hands out in front of himself in a calming gesture. For a moment, the man and the dragon looked at each other in silence, before the dragon lowered its head and nudged the Doctor's right hand with its nose, looking at him with a tentative smile around the edges of its mouth.

"Well… hello?" the Doctor said, looking uncertainly at the Tide Glider before he glanced back at the three Riders, only just registering their surprised expressions. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Not… _wrong_ ," Fishlegs conceded, looking at the Doctor with a tentative smile as he picked up the discarded sword. "It's just… well, I take it you've never been to Berk?"

"Berk?" Turlough repeated. "Where's that?"

"It's our village," Fishlegs explained. "Anyway, our group were the first generation to actually _train_ dragons rather than just fighting them, and even then we were-"

"Point is you just did something that only Hiccup did on his own before now," Tuffnut cut in, looking at the Doctor with an approving grin. "Nice trick, Doc."

"Hiccup?" the Doctor and Turlough said in surprise.

"Hiccup Haddock," Fishlegs explained; he appreciated that he was probably going to get a lecture about this when he got back to the Edge, but the reactions these two had to everything he was telling them reassured him that they weren't part of the Hunters. "He's… well, he was the first Viking to ever train a dragon."

"Dragon Conqueror!" the twins yelled from behind Fishlegs.

"He prefers 'Dragon Rider'," Fishlegs shrugged as the Doctor and Turlough exchanged glances. "And don't worry about the twins; they're… well, they prank people."

"Ah contraire, dear Fishlegs; we _Loki_ ¸ we do not just 'prank'," Tuffnut corrected him. Fishlegs was about to turn and face Tuffnut directly when the Tide Glider let out a pained screech, the group turning back to see that its wing was at an awkward angle and there were various marks on its skin where the net had been pressed against it.

"Oh dear," the Doctor said, walking over to examine the wing carefully before looking up at Fishlegs. "I don't suppose you have any idea how to treat an infection for these dragons? It appears that the bones in its wing have been damaged, and there are some scratches here that don't look entirely healthy."

"Well… we don't have anything like that _here_ , but you might have better luck back at the Edge…"

" _The Edge_?" the twins and Turlough said at once, the redhead confused and the twins shocked.

"Fishlegs, are you seriously suggesting we bring two strangers to the Edge?" Ruffnut looked at him in surprise. "I'm not sure if I should admire the rebellion or wonder at the stupidity?"

"It's not like that!" Fishlegs protested. "The Glider needs help, the Doctor's already bonded with it and _wants_ to help; it's not like we're just bringing him along because he's asked!"

"Shouldn't we-?" Turlough began.

"I think we'll be safe enough with these people for the moment, Turlough," the Doctor said, before turning back to Fishlegs. "So, if my actions have given me a… bond to this Tide Glider, I take it that means you're willing to help me treat it?"

"Once we have a better idea what to do for him, yeah."

"Him?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You can tell?"

"Yeah… I think so…" Fishlegs studied the dragon for a moment before he nodded. "Yeah, I definitely read that female Tide Gliders had a few less horns than this guy does; he's male."

"Right," the Doctor said, looking at the dragon with a tentative smile. "Then in that case, until you're recovered, if I'm going to be spending more time with you, I'll have to call you something… is 'Sullivan' acceptable?"

The Tide Glider seemed to study the Doctor for a moment, and then reached out to press his nose against the Doctor's outstretched hand once again, making a low rumble in its throat that seemed to be an approving one.

"Sullivan?" Fishlegs asked, noting with slight relief that Turlough had asked the same question.

"An old friend of mine," the Doctor explained. "He was a sailor himself before he travelled with me for a time; it seems… appropriate to use his name here."

"Right…" Fishlegs said, briefly wondering where these men had come from before deciding it wasn't worth asking that kind of question when they had the more immediate concern of a sick dragon to deal with.

"Doctor," Turlough said uncertainly, "if we're leaving this island, shouldn't we-?"

"Our property will be safe enough here, Turlough," the Doctor smiled at his apprentice. "While we're still working out what we're dealing with, best not to put all our eggs in one basket, after all."

"Particularly not dragon eggs," Tuffnut added.

"Dragon eggs?"

"Something to talk about once Sullivan has been treated, I think," the Doctor cut off that particular conversation, gaze shifting between Sullivan and the net for a moment before he looked at the three Dragon Riders. "In the meantime, if the three of you are willing to give Turlough and I a lift, I think I have an idea how we can use this to get Sullivan here back to 'the Edge'…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those who might wish to know, 'Sullivan' is a reference to the Doctor's companion Harry Sullivan, a former lieutenant in the navy who worked as UNIT's medical officer and travelled with the Fourth Doctor for a brief period after his regeneration; the name seemed appropriate for more reasons than just the Tide Glider being a tidal dragon, but more details will be revealed later


	3. Dragon's Edge

As he sat anxiously between two of the large red spikes on the back of the two-headed dragon, Turlough couldn't believe he'd let himself get dragged into this mess. It was frustrating enough having to tolerate being regarded as the Doctor's 'assistant' all over again- he couldn't decide if 'apprentice' was better or worse, as at least this way it sounded like he would eventually be trusted to take on greater responsibilities- but faced with the prospect of learning that an entire species of animal had existed on Earth without even the Doctor knowing about it…

"All well over there, Turlough?" the Doctor called over at his friend, the Time Lord looking remarkably unfazed despite having a very tight seat on a squat dragon with a particularly large rider.

"Coping," Turlough replied awkwardly, before turning back to the twins riding ahead of him (he briefly wondered if they alternated control or had each trained a specific head). "Are we nearly there?"

"Not enjoying the ride?" the girl twin- 'Ruffnut', Turlough thought he remembered the name- looked back at him with a grin.

"It's just… not what I expected," Turlough said, deciding that it was best to be diplomatic when riding on a dragon. "I never even thought-"

"We're there!" Fishlegs called out, saving Turlough from having to find another awkward explanation for his own confusion as he looked ahead to get his first glimpse of their destination.

Considering that this place was designed around a thousand years before the Earth houses he was most familiar with, Turlough had to admit that he was actually impressed at the effort that must have gone into finding and designing this place. The Edge was located in a cove on a fair-sized island, covered in a dense forest, while the various huts of the Edge had been built on an array of stacked cliffs that left Turlough wondering if nature had been extremely 'generous' or if the Riders had used their dragons to help carve it out.

As the dragons drew closer, Turlough could see a range of huts around the cove, each hut reflecting a surprising range of design that must reflect their owners. One hut seemed to have windmills and a chimney on its roof, another put Turlough in mind of a small fort, a third had an open area that reminded him of a meditation room, a fourth seemed to have balloons on its roof, and the fifth seemed to have a range of 'S's all over it while being built against the cliff in a particularly defensible position. There were a few larger buildings, but Turlough guessed that they were meant to be meeting rooms of some sort, as well as a strange-looking half-dome in the middle of the island that he guessed was some kind of open-air amphitheatre. The huts were linked to each other through a range of walkways, bridges, and even what Turlough could swear were ziplines, which became clearer as the dragons landed in front of one of the larger buildings. Based on the large platform at the front of the hut, Turlough guessed that it was likely the equivalent of an 'aircraft hanger' where the dragons slept, with that impression being reinforced when he saw paintings of dragons on the doors that included images clearly based on the two dragons they'd met so far.

"Very nice designs," the Doctor said, nodding thoughtfully as he climbed off Meatlug and took in the huts around them. "Distinctive, certainly… you made all this yourselves?"

"Pretty much," Fishlegs nodded.

"It's just you?" Turlough asked as he carefully climbed off the back of the two-headed dragon. "As in, only the three of you live here?"

"Us and the rest of the Dragon Riders," Fishlegs nodded. "The six of us relocated here a year ago to better explore these islands, and once we found this spot we set it up as our base."

"Yeah, Hiccup basically let us all design our own place once we settled on this island so long as we were all in one area," Tuffnut explained with a shrug as he and Ruffnut hopped off their own dragon, leaving Sullivan lying on the wooden platform with the net lying flat around him. "Still say he should have given us more space for the boar pit-"

"Which was never going to happen, Tuffnut," another voice said, the tone immediately making Turlough think of someone with a cold.

"Oh, hey Hiccup," Tuffnut nodded as the speaker walked out from the large hut the dragons had landed in front of, followed closely by a black dragon.

Studying the man who had apparently 'conquered' the dragons (and he hoped the Doctor worked out what dragons were even doing here soon enough), Turlough was surprised to see a young man who couldn't have been much older than him, and was significantly slighter than the stereotypical Viking image formed from his old history lessons. The man in question was wearing brown leather over a red shirt with green trousers, but Turlough was particularly caught off-guard to see that the young man's left leg was a complex-looking system of metal and wood from below the knee, making him wonder both how this man had lost his original leg and who had designed a replacement that struck him as surprisingly advanced for this time period. The black dragon walking alongside the young man was notably smaller than the Zippleback and the Gronkle; if Turlough had to compare it to anything, he immediately thought of a scaled cat with bat-like wings and a long tail, and with its body shape adjusted so that it was somehow thinner with shorter legs while retaining its general design.

"Uh… hi," the young man said, nodding uncertainly at the Doctor and Turlough before turning to the other Riders. "Fishlegs, I thought we agreed-"

"I know, Hiccup, but they were already trying to help the Tide Glider before we even got there and they couldn't have known we were in the area; would hunters bother with something like that?" Fishlegs explained. "I mean, they even seemed surprised to _see_ a dragon in the first place, and actually showed no sign that they knew what any of them were called; what kind of hunter would attempt a bluff like that?"

"Point… I suppose…" the young man said, before he turned back to the Doctor. "Who are you?"

"I am the Doctor, and this is my apprentice, Turlough," the Doctor replied with a smile, evidently sticking to their tentative cover story. "I take it you're the 'Dragon Conqueror' or 'Dragon Rider' I've heard about?"

"I prefer 'Dragon Trainer'… or just 'Hiccup', if you'd like," the young man nodded back at the Doctor with an uncertain smile. "So… 'the Doctor'?"

"My culture requires that I disregard the name of my birth to dedicate myself to my calling," the Doctor explained. "To put the title in a context that you would understand, consider me a travelling scholar; I wander the world, investigating its mysteries and learning what I can of them."

"Right…" Hiccup nodded thoughtfully as he studied the Doctor. "So… what brings you here?"

"My ship drifted into this area and I stopped at an island to plan my next move," the Doctor explained, walking over to indicate Sullivan. "When Turlough and I discovered Sullivan here, well, I was immediately fascinated to find something I'd believed was only a myth, so I felt obliged to do what I could to help him."

"Sullivan?" Hiccup repeated curiously.

"After an old friend of mine," the Doctor explained, looking back at the blue dragon that had walked off the net and was now looking curiously at the black one sitting alongside it. "I understand that you call his species 'Tide Gliders', and we've already been introduced to the Zippleback and the Gronkle, but what do you call that dragon?"

"Toothless?" Hiccup responded with a slight smile. "He's a Night Fury."

"Toothless?" Turlough repeated uncertainly, looking at the dragon. "I mean, 'Night Fury' sounds good, but does this dragon seriously not have-?"

As though in response to Turlough's query, the dragon turned to look at him and opened its mouth, revealing a toothless grin before teeth suddenly popped out of its gums.

"Fascinating," the Doctor crouched down to examine Toothless' mouth more directly. "I assume he has a particularly powerful fire blast?"

"Fires plasma shots, really," Hiccup said, looking at the Doctor in surprise. "What… why did you ask that?"

"Considering what dragons are capable of, I assumed that the retractable teeth would have something to do with that," the Doctor explained. "He must generate particularly powerful blasts when he uses it; the ability to retract his teeth would ensure that he doesn't just break them by accident whenever he fires."

"That's… good," Fishlegs looked at the Doctor in surprise. "You're _sure_ you've never seen a dragon before?"

"I've heard the myths, but that's all," the Doctor said, turning his attention to the net that they'd used to carry Sullivan here. "I will admit that Turlough and I didn't know they were here when we arrived, but if you'd be willing to tell us anything, I'm certainly willing to listen."

"Just listen?" Ruffnut looked at the Doctor with narrowed eyes.

"You don't even want to learn how to ride the blue guy?" Tuffnut indicated Sullivan, who had moved on from studying Toothless to look more curiously at the Doctor.

"That's possible?" the Doctor looked at Sullivan with a sudden thoughtful smile before he schooled his expression and turned back to Hiccup. "But in any case, that's something to be explored later; for the moment, I would simply be grateful if you could help me treat his injuries and maybe help me find who used this… net…"

As the Doctor carefully raised the net from around the blue dragon's body, his voice faltered as he held it up to his face, expression shifting from mild curiosity to subtle apprehension. "Oh no…"

"What are you-?" Turlough began, before the Doctor turned to show him a few sections of the net that were glowing a faint red colour. "Tracking device?"

"Unlikely to be anything else," the Doctor nodded before he looked at Hiccup, Fishlegs and the twins, even as he removed the rest of the net from Sullivan, the dragon weakly rising to its feet to walk away from the net that had kept it trapped. "I recognise that you have no reason to believe this or anything I might say to you this early on, but it is _vital_ that this net be taken as far away from here as possible."

"The _net_?" the four natives looked at the Doctor in surprise

"Feel free to bring back a part of it if you wish, but I have reason to believe whoever trapped Sullivan with it is following this net, so it's extremely important that someone take this back along our route and then breaks off to leave the majority of it somewhere where it won't matter if an enemy visits," the Doctor clarified, wrapping the net in a bundle and holding it out to the four Vikings. "I promise I'll explain what I can later-"

"Fine," Hiccup nodded as he stepped forward to take the net. "I'll go."

"Hiccup, I'm really not sure-"

"Fishlegs," Hiccup looked at him with a pointed stare, "I appreciate your concern, but if whoever used this net has tracker dragons that can accurately track something in this net, the Doctor's right that we should probably get this thing away from the Edge as soon as we can."

"Feel free to bring back any of the net itself; from past experience, I believe the trackers are just following the red joints," the Doctor added, as Hiccup slung himself over Toothless's back, Turlough noting with surprise how Hiccup's left foot slid into its position in the 'stirrup' for the dragon's saddle. "And I'll explain everything I can as _soon_ as you get back here with that net safely out of the way, I assure you."

"Right…" the young man nodded at the Doctor before turning to Fishlegs and the twins. "Make sure these two don't go anywhere before I get back; Astrid and Snotlout should be back from patrol soon."

"There are more…?" Turlough began, only to trail off as Toothless flapped his wings and flew into the sky, leaving the others to look uncertainly at each other.

"There are six of us," Fishlegs clarified, in response to Turlough's unfinished question.

"You three, Hiccup, and this… Astrid and Snotlout?" the Doctor asked, looking at the large young man with a smile. "Thank you for clearing that up."

"Yeah, well, you do realise that we can't just let you leave now after everything you've found out about us already?" Tuffnut observed.

"And I can assure you that we have no intention of going anywhere until we have learned more about these fascinating creatures and whoever attempted to capture Sullivan here," the Doctor responded, as the blue dragon carefully moved to stand close to him, the Time Lord almost instinctively stroking the dragon as it nuzzled him. "That said, is there somewhere on this island where we can focus on examining Sullivan's injuries before we start exchanging information?"


	4. What to Do with the Dragons?

"And that's all he needs?" the Doctor looked at the blue dragon in surprise as Sullivan lay in the middle of the dragon pens.

"Tide Glider venom has healing properties, and none of the cuts were particularly deep," Fishlegs nodded reassuringly at the Doctor; the twins had gone off to check the island's defences, but they had left their dragon behind with a tone that Fishlegs knew meant he could consider the dragon available to defend him if needed. "He should probably take a dip in the water later, but for the moment he just needs rest."

"Water?" Turlough asked.

"Tidal-class dragons prefer it," Fishlegs clarified. "Some of them can cope better in the air than others, but they still need to return to the ocean on a regular basis or they'll dry out."

"That makes sense," the Doctor nodded at the other man, before he glanced over at the other two dragons sitting curiously around Sullivan. "I assume these two are different 'classes' of dragon?"

"Gronckles are boulder-class dragons and Zipplebacks are mystery-class," Fishlegs confirmed.

"That fits," Turlough nodded as he looked over the Zippleback. "How anything can even _exist_ with two heads is a mystery to me…"

"It's certainly an interesting way to exist," the Doctor observed, smiling as he studied the Zippleback for a moment before looking back at Fishlegs. "And what class was Toothless?"

"Mystery."

"I see… out of curiosity, how many classes are there?"

"Well, we've generally been able to allocate each dragon we've encountered so far into one of seven different classes, but considering that we actually identified one of those classes since we came here a year ago, it's not impossible to assume there might be more," Fishlegs explained, his tone reflecting the simple eagerness to share knowledge that the Doctor had long since come to appreciate.

"Fascinating," the Doctor mused, smiling in approval before he looked at the Viking. "And how long have you been training dragons?"

"Ever since Hiccup tamed Toothless a few years ago and led us in killing the Red Death."

"I thought it was the Green Death?" Tuffnut cut in.

"Nah, Red sounds better," Ruffnut affirmed. "Red sounds intimidating and it had all those spines on its back; Green just makes it sound like it was sick."

"Anyway," Fishlegs waved a hand at the twins in frustration as he looked back at the Doctor, "the Red Death was basically the queen of the dragons in our part of the archipelago up until a few years ago, using them to steal food from us and feed itself, but we spent the better part of the last few centuries fighting the dragons because we thought they were just after the food for themselves."

"And then Hiccup found it and told your people where to go to kill it?" Turlough asked.

"Once he trained us in how to fly on our own dragons to save the tribe from all being killed by it," Tuffnut clarified with a wistful smile. "Man, that giant was a _blast_ to blow up-"

"Blow up?" the Doctor and Turlough repeated in surprise.

"How do you blow up a dragon?" the Doctor asked. "Surely it would be fireproof by definition?"

"Hiccup and Toothless managed to shoot a plasma blast down its throat when it was about to launch another fire attack at them," Fishlegs explained. "As Hiccup discovered, dragons aren't as fireproof on the inside as they are on the outside, so when they triggered the gas inside the Red Death, it blew up when it hit the ground."

"And it was _awesome_!" the twins said eagerly.

"Seriously," Tuffnut grinned, "we still haven't managed to replicate something even _half_ the size of the boom that thing made in the end!"

"Out of curiosity… how big _was_ this dragon?" Turlough looked at Fishlegs with barely-restrained incredulity.

"Big enough to eat a Gronckle in one bite and pick up a longship in its mouth without any sign of strain," Fishlegs observed.

"Seriously, its _eye_ was as big as Snotlout!" the male twin said with an eager grin that made Turlough distinctly uncomfortable.

"Fascinating," the Doctor observed, an edge to his voice that Turlough couldn't identify. "I take it that you haven't encountered a dragon of that size very often?"

"Closest thing we've found since those days was the Screaming Death, and that was a lot thinner and significantly less hungry," Ruffnut observed.

"I… see," the Doctor nodded, looking back at Turlough for a moment before he looked at Fishlegs. "On the topic of dragons, I don't suppose you know how the dragons are capable of breathing fire? I mean, I assume they possess some additional gland that facilitates the generation of the necessary chemicals?"

"Yes, actually," the large Viking nodded.

"They do?" Turlough looked at Fishlegs in surprise. "How did you learn about something like that?"

"Back when we used to… _kill them_ ," Fishlegs explained, adjusting his tone of voice to a whisper at the crucial words, "we discovered after analysing their… corpses… that most dragons possess two glands in the backs of their throats to help them breath fire, with one generating some kind of flammable gas while the other triggers the spark that lights them on fire."

"It's part of what makes Barf and Belch so cool," Tuffnut put in, indicating the two-headed dragon. "Barf creates gas and Belch triggers it."

"That… makes sense," the Doctor nodded thoughtfully as he looked at the Zippleback, before looking directly at the male twin inquiringly. "You gave your dragon distinct names for each head?"

"It felt right."

"I'm not criticising, just observing," the Doctor explained, looking thoughtfully back at the dragons for a moment before he turned back to Fishlegs. "So you know a fair amount about these dragons, I take it?"

"Well, Hiccup has the better feel for them-"

"But Fishlegs _is_ the one to talk to if you want details on every individual species," Ruffnut shrugged. "Don't get how he keeps track of all that stuff, but he pulls it off."

"Right…" the Doctor nodded thoughtfully before he looked at Fishlegs. "Could my apprentice and I talk about this in private for a moment?"

* * *

"So," Turlough looked at the Doctor as the two stood in an empty hut that the riders had provided for the current conversation, "what do you think? More alien involvement tampering with humanity for some reason?"  
  
"Most likely," the Doctor nodded contemplatively at his companion, briefly wondering what was prompting Fishlegs to yell like that outside before deciding it wasn't important. "If we were only talking about a couple of distinct species it's possible that we could just be dealing with nature throwing up some interesting quirks, but there are too many different dragons for us to assume that they evolved naturally out of nothing, especially when they're active in such a confined area."  
  
"You think this set of islands is the only place we'd find them?"  
  
"It makes more sense than assuming they were active globally and everyone forgot about it."  
  
"Really?" Turlough looked sceptically at the Doctor. "There's really no way that humans could have just… not known about this? I mean, they don't know about the Silurians-"  
  
"Who had a developed civilisation, traditional methods of corpse disposal that wouldn't leave any traces for archaeologists to find, and existed before humanity evolved as a civilised race, none of which would apply to what we've seen of these dragons," the Doctor corrected. "I admit that it's theoretically possible that they didn't leave recognisable remains; if we assume that their bones are essentially hollow to account for their flight ability, that would limit what trace evidence they would leave for archaeologists to find after their deaths."  
  
"Well, that clears that up-"  
  
"Except that only offers a possible explanation for why they haven't been found in the future, doesn't explain why there were no written records of these events that might have survived into your time, and it certainly doesn't explain how so many different dragons have evolved by this time in this island archipelago."  
  
"So… in a nutshell, it makes no sense that these dragons evolved here in the first place, and there's no explanation for why records of them didn't survive into the future?" Turlough asked, a part of him already regretting what the Doctor might be about to say.  
  
"Unless the reason we don't know about them in the future is because something happens to them in this time period to take them out of the equation."  
  
"Like… us?"  
  
"I don't know," the Doctor shook his head solemnly, lowering his voice after an anxious glance at the door to be sure none of the riders were listening in. "I can't think what we could do that would get rid of so many dragons so completely, but at the same time, we know they _aren't_ there in the future. It's theoretically possible that the dragons never expanded beyond this island archipelago, but even if it's possible nobody mapped these islands before something destroyed them, that doesn't explain what happened to them, considering that it's hard to drown something capable of flight."  
  
The Doctor said nothing more, but Turlough had been with the Time Lord long enough to recognise that the Doctor was troubled by the implications of his own words. He was obviously still hoping to find an alternate solution, but at the same time it was hard to ignore the fact that everything around them defied what even Turlough knew of Earth's history, which meant that something would have to happen to prevent any of this going public.  
  
Turlough would freely admit that he wasn't a particularly noble person, but at the same time, there was a difference between focusing on himself and taking part in the potential genocide of an entire race in the name of preserving history. He'd been able to spend most of the time he was with Haliwell and the others telling himself that he was witnessing a new timeline unfold to justify why he hadn't heard about it, but this wasn't the same thing as dealing with a small group of selected individuals who had kept a secret intended only for the chosen few. Right now he was faced with a civilisation that had apparently built itself around the idea that it would fly dragons on a regular basis, which he knew for a fact wouldn't exist in the future but sounded like it was fairly well-developed beyond the four they'd met so far.  
  
Asking the Doctor to destroy something like this in the name of history…  
  
Not for the first time, Turlough understood why the Doctor had left Gallifrey; if the Time Lords would make him do something like this in the name of the Laws of Time, it was amazing that his friend still tried to defend them when they were in danger.


	5. An Unconventional Hunter

Hiccup had often been accused of acting on impulse without thinking things through, but right now even he wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up going along with the strange request from a man he'd only just met.

On the one hand, there was something in the Doctor's manner that made Hiccup inclined to trust him even if he couldn't explain what it was. He appreciated that their first encounter with Heather hadn't set a great precedent for introducing strangers to too much dragon knowledge, but Fishlegs had made a good point that any hunters after them these days wouldn't have seen a real point in pretending not to know about dragons if they were trying to infiltrate the Edge.

 _Besides, from what 'legs said, they were actively trying to help a dragon when they couldn't have known they'd be found at that moment_ , Hiccup mused to himself as Toothless continued to press on. _It's not evidence, but that's got to mean something here…_

On the other hand, Hiccup had essentially abandoned the Edge after an unknown duo had arrived on the island, for no better reason than to take a net that he still couldn't see anything strange about away from their base, just because an equally unusual man seemed certain that it was dangerous. There was nothing obviously dangerous about what he was doing, and the 'Doctor' hadn't even given him any clear indication of where he was meant to go to dispose of this, which at least limited the idea that this was some kind of trap, but that still left Hiccup with more than a few questions about what was going on here. He could appreciate the basic argument that the Doctor believed that something about this net would allow someone else to find them- he'd certainly seen tracker dragons like Skullcrusher follow minimal scent traces to find their targets- but that didn't explain why the Doctor was worried about someone tracking the net in particular rather than the dragon…

Still, in the end, it was a relatively simple request to go along with even if it was taking him a while to follow up; his curiosity might have put him in trouble in the past, but Hiccup felt that this was a case where it was worth indulging that part of himself. He'd spent the first part of the journey retracing what he believed was the route the twins and Fishlegs would have had to take to get here in the first place, based on their projected patrol route, and he'd eventually turned off when he found himself in a familiar part of the sea.

It had been a few years since their brief encounter with the Boneknapper, and the dragon hadn't been interested in sticking around even if it had bonded briefly with Gobber after putting their past to rest, but this was definitely the place where they'd tried to trap that particular dragon. If the Doctor was right about the net being tracked by something, Hiccup felt that this was the best place he could dump it; there'd been no life on this island when they'd originally found it apart from the Boneknapper, and while that dragon hadn't been permanently trained, he was fairly sure it had moved on after it got its final bone from Gobber and took them back to Berk.

"Not a very appealing place, huh, Bud?" he glanced down at Toothless, smiling grimly as he indicated the island below them, to be met with a brief snort and a twist of the head that Hiccup knew from experience indicated that his dragon agreed with him. "Still, that's the whole reason we're here; we dump this, whoever's tracking it comes to a deserted island with no way of knowing where we actually are, and if the Doctor's right, nobody gets hurt."

Toothless's mumbled response was actually a surprise to Hiccup, as it marked one of the few times he wasn't entirely sure what his friend was trying to say to him. He looked thoughtfully at the dragon for a moment while trying to interpret that strange response, but finally decided that Toothless wasn't giving any sign that he disapproved of the plan. After spending a few more moments flying over the island, he noted the ribcage that he and the other riders had used to try and hide from the Boneknapper's attack, directing Toothless to land beside the fragmented skeleton.

"OK," he said, tossing the net to the ground and staring at it for a moment, trying to spot any clue as to its origin, before he stepped back to look over at Toothless. "Care to give this a quick blast or two, bud?"

In response, Toothless struck the net twice with his plasma bolts, followed by the dragon leaping over to stamp on the damaged net. Once he'd spent some time stamping on it, Toothless reached down to tear at the metal net with his teeth, even if the effort took a surprising amount of time given Hiccup's long experience of just how powerful Toothless was and how thin this net was. Eventually Toothless stepped back from the damaged net with a few strands of the strange thin metal in his mouth, the red fragments that the Doctor had identified as the 'dangerous' parts all still lying with the main net under the Night Fury's feet.

"Nice work, Toothless," Hiccup said, walking over to take the net from the dragon's mouth and confirm his assessment. It was still warm from the plasma blasts, but it was already cool enough for Hiccup to hold it in his bare hands; as far as he could tell, it was as though the metal had cooled down from Toothless's attack far faster than any metal he'd ever encountered before.

"Well, that seems to be that net taken out of the picture," he said, moving to get back on Toothless's saddle as he slung the net fragment over his shoulder. "Let's get this back to the Doctor; maybe he can tell us a bit more-"

He was interrupted when something vibrant green in colour struck the ground close to him, prompting Toothless to jump back so sharply that Hiccup almost fell off the dragon. As Toothless scrambled to regain his balance, Hiccup glanced up to see what had attacked them, and found himself staring in shock at something in the air.

For a moment Hiccup thought that he was dealing with a new kind of dragon, but it didn't take long for him to disregard that explanation as no dragon would ever look that angular or keep its wings in a fixed position for so long as it flew above him. The thing coming towards him, letting out a strange screeching sound as it came closer, was a dark red in colour that could best be compared to Hookfang, but its wingspan was at least twice as wide as the Nightmare's, with wings curved downwards with sharp joints pointing out to the front. There was a squat protruding object in the centre of the shape that could be a head, along with a larger central shape that seemed to be as large as Gobber's forge, but the black shape on the front of the flying thing made him think more of a helmet of some kind, and there were a couple of other points to either side of the 'helmet' that made him think of small spears.

Hiccup had no idea what he was looking at, but it was clear that this was some kind of artificial thing rather than a living dragon- even if he had no idea what it was or how anyone had made it- and he had a strong feeling that this was what the Doctor had been concerned about. For a moment he thought about just flying away to leave the thing to follow the trail to the net, but swiftly rejected that option as the whatever-it-was dived down towards him with a heightened screech with the spear-things glowing at their tips. Hiccup might not know what he was dealing with, but it had clearly seen him already, and he had a feeling the glowing spear-bits weren't good news, so his best bet was to find some way to put this thing down or get away as fast as possible, and he wouldn't like to bet at his chances of escaping something he'd never seen before.

" _Move_!" he yelled, scrambling back onto the saddle and taking off into the air. Once he was above the island, Hiccup took a moment to confirm that the metal thing was following him before he and Toothless dived forward, the Viking and the dragon taking a moment to establish their speed before turning back to look at his mysterious attacker, which had quickly set a pace to follow them.

 _It's a bit smaller than the Red Death, but this is_ definitely _starting to feel familiar…_

Whatever this thing was, it was clearly fast enough to follow Toothless, but even if it was fast enough to keep up with a Night Fury, Hiccup was prepared to bet that it still had one weakness in common with his first dragon enemy.

"OK, Toothless," he said, looking anxiously down at his dragon, "move fast and don't keep on a straight line; we have to keep this guy on the move!"

After Toothless had let out a warble of agreement, the two dived towards the ground before heading out to the sea once again. Hiccup glanced back to make sure that the metal thing was following them before he turned the dragon towards the rocky pillars surrounding the island's coastline, smiling slightly as he felt the sensation of the air whistling around him as he and Toothless flew through the rocks.

He'd pulled off so many more complicated manoeuvres over the long years since he'd started training Berk how to train dragons, but in this moment, he felt as though he was back on that first ever flight with Toothless, when he'd learned to throw away the cheat sheet and trust his own instincts even when he hadn't had any conscious idea what they were doing. He heard that strange screeching sound from behind as the thing continued its pursuit, but it was easy enough for Hiccup to work out that whatever this thing was, it wasn't going at its maximum pace to avoid crashing into the pillars.

 _Which suggests that it's fragile enough to be injured by them if it_ does _hit… which means I might just have a shot_ …

For the next few moments, Hiccup maintained a careful balance of staying close enough to the pillars to force the thing to stay back while not getting so close that it might provoke his attacker into peeling off and leaving him alone. Toothless's natural agility and their own hard-earned experience made it relatively easy for them to evade their attacker, but Hiccup still only gave it a few moments to continue the chase before he turned his attention to the next part of his plan. Hoping he remembered enough of the island's structure to time this part correctly, Hiccup waited until he was starting his second loop before he dived through a gap in the rock that he recognised from their original confrontation with the Boneknapper. The gap was wide enough for his pursuer to come after him as it turned on its side and accelerated through the rocks after him, but just as Hiccup had anticipated, it wasn't fast enough to avoid striking the rock wall that was essentially opposite the crack it had just flown through.

When his mysterious attacker hit the rocky mountain, Hiccup had expected something to break so that he could take a closer look at it once it stopped moving, but he hadn't expected the strange flying metal thing to explode with the kind of force he hadn't witnessed since the Red Death had hit the ground all those years ago. Toothless barely managed to get them out of range of the resulting fire before it would have consumed the dragon's artificial tail-fin, Hiccup and the dragon continuing to fly for another few moments before they turned around to better examine the now-dying flames that were all that remained of the explosion. After Toothless spent a few moments slowly flapping towards the explosion, he came in close enough to end the fire with a few powerful beats of his wings, eventually flying down towards the blackened smoking remains that now lay at the bottom of the rocky formation, just a short distance from the sea.

"Huh," Hiccup said, as the dragon came to land on the blackened beach, letting him climb off Toothless's back to carefully examine the smashed remains of whatever the metal thing had been. Parts of the thing had scattered over most of the beach where he, Gobber and the original Riders had confronted the Boneknapper during that short interlude before they'd officially started the Dragon Academy, but there were still a few larger bits that Hiccup felt could be worth examining.

He still didn't know what that thing had been or where it had come from, but if he could take a closer look at some of the larger fragments, he might be able to work out where it had come from if he and Fishlegs could break it down somehow and figure out what it was made of.

 _Actually, if the Doctor knows anything about that net and these guys, maybe he'll be able to give us something to work with once I make it clear I know these guys aren't standard hunters_ …

"Never easy, is it, bud?" Hiccup glanced at Toothless as the dragon nosed one of the larger chunks of metal before stepping back with a disgruntled snort, clearly expressing his distaste for whatever that was. Noting a part of the black stuff that had been at the front of the thing, Hiccup cautiously walked over to the fragment with Toothless close behind him, flinching back as the scent of cooked meat filled his nose.

"Oh Gods," he said, looking back at Toothless. "I… think someone was _in_ here, bud…"

Demonstrating his usual understanding of Hiccup's agenda, Toothless moved forward and quickly turned the partially black fragment over with his nose. Glancing underneath it, Hiccup clapped a hand over his mouth when he saw a person lying among the burnt metal, but curiosity overwhelmed disgust when the scent of the body lying in front of him reached his nostrils.

He appreciated that he hadn't often smelt burnt flesh on this scale- Gobber was surprisingly careful when he was teaching Hiccup about metalwork in the forge, so Hiccup had never even sustained any significant burns until he'd lost his leg, and his time in the forge meant that he was never exposed to any of the really burnt bodies after raids went wrong- but it was impossible to spend a life in a village attacked by dragons without smelling burning flesh to some extent.

He might not be an expert in the scent, but there was definitely something off about the smell of the burning flesh of whatever had been controlling this thing…

His eyes widened when he saw a hand lying on the beach near the wreckage, the limb ending with a grotesquely twisted burn halfway down the arm. The sharp nails were a surprise, but what disturbed him even more was that the hand's 'skin' actually looked more like dragon scales rather than human flesh, even with the damage caused by the smoke.

"What the…?" he began, tentatively reaching towards the arm before he saw something lying in the flaming wreckage that made him jump back in shock. He quickly collected himself to take a closer look, but that glimpse just affirmed his original thought; he was looking at a head that could tentatively be human in appearance, but was clearly anything but human. The skull was slightly longer than a human being, it had particularly prominent eyebrows, and Hiccup thought he could see some kind of strange pattern around its ears, but even with the fire blazing around the skull, it was clear that this thing had two long tusks sticking out of the side of its mouth that were clearly not part of a helmet of some sort.

"OK," he said, looking uncertainly at the skull before looking back at his dragon. "I think we need to ask the Doctor what he-"

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a stifled roar from behind him. Quickly turning around to look for the source of the roar, Hiccup's eyes widened when he saw a box-like frame in the pool of water between the small beach and the gap in the rocks he'd just flown through, with a large turquoise-and-red dragon inside it. To Hiccup's astonishment, the large frame was resting in the ocean with no sign that the water was actually entering the frame itself, with the dragon completely dry as it wailed pitifully from within the apparently hollow box that seemed to have invisible walls.

The dragon in question was a large beast, putting him in mind of Skullcrusher or Meatlug in terms of size, with a rounded body and a large head, a short, thin horn on its snout and two longer ones further up its head near the ears. It had a small pair of legs at the front of its body, but its rear legs were notably larger, and a row of spines running along its back that ended in a spiked tail bludgeon. For a moment Hiccup wondered why it hadn't tried to get out of the frame, but that question was partially answered when the dragon tried to open its wings and he actually saw a spark emerge at what looked like the point where the dragon's wing had reached the boundary created by the framework of the cage.

"Right…" he said, looking over at Toothless to confirm that the Night Fury seemed just as confused by this turn of events as he was before he turned back to study the trapped dragon more directly. He tentatively identified the creature as a Snafflefang, based on some of the material he'd read while studying the Book of Dragons, and the position of the frame suggested that it had been inside that metal thing when it crashed and somehow been spared the worst of the damage, but that definitely didn't explain what that 'cage' was or even gave him any idea how it worked.

Even with a mind that he knew was far beyond most of his peers, Hiccup had no idea what he was looking at right now, but he was sure that this was far beyond anything the dragon hunters he was familiar with could be capable of, to say nothing of whatever had been in that ship clearly not being human.

 _And since he sent us out this way just because he saw that net, I_ definitely _need to work out what the Doctor knows about all this…_


	6. Dragon Lessons

"So," the blonde woman who had introduced herself as Astrid Hofferson said, her arms folded as she looked thoughtfully at the Doctor in the Edge's main meeting area, "who _are_ you?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor smiled politely at the young woman, making a point not to pay too much attention to the axe on her back; in his experience, paying too much attention to a weapon increased the likelihood of someone threatening to use it against him.

"And that's just a title? You don't have a name to go with it?"

"I forsook my name when I began my travels, as… according to my culture," the Doctor shrugged, Astrid, hoping that the woman would accept that explanation as he gave her an awkward, curious smile of his own. "On that topic, I was under the impression that your own culture didn't really let women… well, get out like this?"

"Berk learned a long time ago that there wasn't any real point trying to keep women out of the fight when the dragons could kill us whether we were in the field or not."

"And thank _Loki_ for that!" Ruffnut grinned before her expression turned to a scowl as she indicated her brother. "Even if I still get stuck riding around with _him_."

"We all make sacrifices, sis," Tuffnut added as he slung his arm around her shoulders for a moment before he walked off. "Like how I need to track down Chicken before she thinks I've forgotten lunch!"

"…Good luck with that," Turlough called tentatively after the male twin as he ran off to another part of the island before he turned back to Ruffnut. "He really named his chicken 'Chicken'?"

"He's never been good with names," Ruffnut shrugged. "There's a reason I named Barf and Belch, y'know."

"Of course," Turlough said, nodding in that familiar stiff manner the Doctor recognised as his friend trying not to offend someone potentially powerful at their latest location. "Quite… interesting names."

"Well, when one breaths gas and the other lights the spark, good way to tell 'em apart," the remaining twin shrugged.

"And speaking of telling dragons apart," the Doctor said as he stood up and looked over at Fishlegs, "I think it's about time for us to check up on Sullivan again."

"Probably," Fishlegs nodded as he got up to join the Doctor. "And I need to make sure we get more gel from Hookfang anyway."

"Hey!" the short Viking whose name was apparently Snotlout protested. "Who said you could-?"

"We need to keep our supplies fully stocked, Snotlout," Fishlegs looked critically at the other boy. "It's not our fault that Nightmare gel is one of our best ways to defend this place at the moment."

"Nightmare gel?" the Doctor and Turlough asked simultaneously.

"Monstrous Nightmares can light themselves on fire rather than just breathing it thanks to a specially flammable gel they emit all over their bodies," Fishlegs explained. "We've learned how to collect the gel they secrete to turn jugs and other things into… well, explosive devices, but it's… tricky to keep it secure."

"I can imagine," Turlough said as he glanced over at the Doctor. "Didn't you make a comment once about the dangers of juggling nitroglycerine?"

"That was just intended as an example of how dangerous Mr Sin could be; I never intended to imply that I'd done it," the Doctor corrected his companion.

"Mr Sin?" the four assembled Vikings asked.

"A name an old associate of mine gave to his… favourite weapon," the Doctor said, before turning back to face Snotlout and Fishlegs directly. "In any case, if you wouldn't mind an observer?"

"Uh… of course," Fishlegs nodded at the Time Lord.

" _Hey_!" Snotlout protested. "We can't just let _anyone_ see-!"

"Watching us do this won't do the Doctor any good if he can't find a Monstrous Nightmare to tame for himself, and we don't exactly have a lot of those just… flying around that aren't already being trained by someone, you know," Fishlegs observed.

"They're rare?" Turlough asked.

"More that they were some of the first dragons we bonded with after we started training them instead of killing them, so most of them stayed with us on Berk and there aren't really any _wild_ ones left where it would be easy for you to get one," Fishlegs clarified, before he turned back to the Doctor. "Anyway, we can check on Sullivan once we've gotten the gel from Hookfang; he might feel better if he sees that another dragon doesn't mind us getting close to him…"

As the large Viking continued to discuss their imminent plans, the Doctor allowed himself to ignore the potential 'risk' of what he might have to do in the future to focus on the opportunities of his present circumstances.

The civilisation he'd just discovered here might leave him with several troubling questions about what exactly dragons were doing in the world and how nobody knew about them in the future, but for the moment, he'd focus on the opportunity to find out something new about the world he thought he'd learned so much about already.

_And this is why I like travelling; seeing things first-hand is so much more fulfilling than just reading the records…_

* * *

As always when he was left on his own, Turlough found himself torn between being grateful he wasn't going to have to sit through some headache-inducing scientific explanation he'd probably barely understand and annoyance at the Doctor for leaving him with a group of people he still wasn't entirely sure about. He had some basic knowledge of Viking history from his time at Brendon, but he barely remembered that part of his history lessons, and everything he'd heard so far made it clear that these people weren't typical Vikings even if he ignored the fact that they were riding dragons.  
  
However much Turlough's more cautious mind wanted to just consider these people a threat, he had to admit that so far nobody struck him as the ruthless pillagers he'd expected from what he did remember of those lessons. The twins and the young man who was apparently called 'Snotlout' were a bit more 'gung-ho' than the other three, but there was no sign of them attempting to probe him for information about where he came from so that they could go out and pillage his homeland in their longships or something like that.  
  
Frankly, so far their meeting with the remaining dragon riders had worked out as well as could be expected, considering that the Doctor was maintaining their usual 'fallback' of presenting themselves as contemporaries of this time who were nevertheless clearly ignorant about local events. Turlough appreciated that nobody was accusing him and the Doctor of anything so far, but he wasn't sure if he should be more concerned about Astrid's cool manner, the twins' obvious eccentricities, or the way Snotlout kept glaring and posturing at him when nobody else was looking.  
  
Still, even if he wasn't entirely sure if Astrid and Snotlout trusted them or not, Turlough supposed he should be grateful that the Doctor seemed to be hitting it off with Fishlegs as they tended to the newly-named 'Sullivan'. Despite his sheer bulk, Fishlegs struck Turlough as being similar to the Doctor in many ways, as the young man came across as very enthusiastic about gathering knowledge purely for the sake of learning, even if Turlough got the impression that Fishlegs lacked a certain confidence in his own abilities.  
  
"So," Astrid looked curiously at Turlough, "if he's 'the Doctor' and you're his apprentice, how come you don't have a title?"  
  
"Like he said, I'm… just his apprentice," Turlough said, once again frustrated at the Doctor 'demoting' him like that even as he had to acknowledge that it was easier than any other explanation they might come up with. "I've been studying with the Doctor for a while, but I… haven't reached the point where I'd have to choose my own title yet."  
  
"And when will that be?"  
  
"It varies," Turlough shrugged. "I mean, there are a few standard ages when everyone can expect to achieve the level of mastery, but I'm sure you don't all… well, qualify to the same level at the same time."  
  
"Good point," Snotlout put in, walking into the meeting area to shoot a particular smile at Astrid. "I mean, we did-"  
  
"Don't go there," Astrid shot her fellow rider a firm glare. "You may have bonded with Hookfang first, but that's the _only_ time you've been ahead of me… and I thought you were helping them get gel from Hookfang?"  
  
"Eh, turns out we hadn't used that much gel recently compared to what we had stocked up, and that Tide Rider needed a little more attention than they thought," Snotlout shrugged. "They didn't need that much, so when they turned to focusing on treating the new guy, I thought I should just step aside."  
  
Turlough appreciated that he didn't get people as well as the Doctor did, but he thought that Astrid was looking at Snotlout with a new sense of approval at his decision.  
  
"How did you end up with your dragons anyway?" Turlough asked, wanting to get the topic away from his own history and satisfy his own curiosity. "I mean, from what Fishlegs told me, Hiccup was the first one of you to try and train one, but what did you do before that?"  
  
"Mostly we spent our time trying to kill each other."  
  
"Ah." Turlough glanced at the large blue spike-covered dragon waiting a short distance away, occasionally looking at him in a manner that made him think the dragon didn't entirely know what to make of him. "I… can see how that might start."  
  
"They spent years stealing our food while we tried to stop them, and nobody was willing to move away because of… well, as Hiccup put it, we have 'stubbornness issues'," Astrid said, a brief warm smile flashing across her face at the mention of Hiccup that told Turlough everything he needed to know about their relationship.  
  
"And that was… the Red Death, right?" Turlough asked. "I mean, Fishlegs mentioned that it was basically in charge of all the dragons in the area… was it really as big as he implied?"  
  
"Big enough that Hiccup speculated that it made the other dragons get food for it because it couldn't leave its nest in the mountain on Dragon Island," Snotlout observed, unusually subdued for the Viking's usual manner.  
  
"Ah," Turlough said, remembering some of the information they'd already been told by Fishlegs about how Hiccup had helped them learn how to train dragons. If that creature had been so big that Snotlout was basically the size of its eye, Turlough supposed he could see how something that large might have just hatched inside a mountain and gone into some kind of hibernation over the years…  
  
"So how did you end up with these dragons specifically?"  
  
"We kept a few dragons… well, locked up… for training purposes," Astrid explained, looking awkwardly at where her blue dragon was chasing her own tail. "When we were in a situation where we needed to fly after the rest of the village when they'd taken Toothless to find the main nest, Hiccup was able to help us train the captured dragons so that we could fly off after them."  
  
"That… makes sense," Turlough nodded. "You really managed to just… train the dragons that you'd been practicing against on that kind of short notice?"  
  
"Well, we had a Terrible Terror as well, so we didn't train _all_ the captured dragons on that one day, but it didn't take us long to realise that… well, they fit us fairly well," Astrid shrugged, smiling over at her dragon before she looked up at a shrieking sound. Following her gaze, Turlough saw a growing black shape approaching the island, which soon came close enough to identify Hiccup and Toothless as they landed on the edge of the wooden paths laid out just outside the meeting area.  
  
"Hiccup?" the Doctor asked, emerging from the dragon pens with Fishlegs to look curiously at the returned dragon rider. "Is everything all right?"  
  
"Well, I brought back a bit of the net like you said," Hiccup said, looking at the Doctor with a stare that even Turlough could tell was unusually intense for the young dragon rider. "But I have to ask… did you know?"  
  
"Did I know?" the Doctor repeated uncertainly.  
  
"Did you know that some metal… _thing_ was going to come after me when you sent me away with the net?"  
  
"You were attacked?" Astrid looked anxiously at him before turning to the Doctor with a new glare. "And you-?"  
  
"I knew that it was likely that someone would be tracking the net, but I had no way of knowing they'd find him that fast," the Doctor clarified before he focused his attention on Hiccup. "What happened to it?"  
  
"Lured the thing into a chase and then… well, it crashed into the side of a cliff," Hiccup shrugged.  
  
"And that knocked it out?" Astrid asked.  
  
"Actually…" Hiccup said, looking lost for the best way to express what had happened before he shrugged uncertainly. "It blew up."  
  
"Blew up?" Snotlout repeated. "Are we talking-?"  
  
"Look, I'd normally be happy to talk about this in relative safety here, but I actually left a Snafflefang trapped back there and I'd like to get back there and see if we can get it out," Hiccup cut his cousin off before he turned back to look at the Doctor. "Since you knew something about the net, maybe you'd be willing to… come along with us and take a look at what's left of it?"  
  
"Consider Turlough and I at your disposal," the Doctor smiled at Hiccup before he looked apologetically at Fishlegs. "Don't take this the wrong way, and be assured that I appreciate the chance to learn more about these remarkable creatures, but if Hiccup is correct, I believe my services would be better served there then here."  
  
"Just be sure to let Sullivan know before you leave," Fishlegs smiled at the Doctor. "I think he likes you."  
  
"I'm… enjoying the opportunity to get to know him as well," the Doctor smiled thoughtfully at that news, before he turned his attention back to Hiccup. "So, assuming that Turlough and I accompany you on this excursion while Fishlegs continues to keep an eye on Sullivan, who should come with us?"


	7. Dragon Hunters from Another World

Positioned behind Hiccup on Toothless as Turlough carefully held himself in place behind Astrid on Stormfly, the Doctor had to acknowledge that it was easy to see why these Vikings enjoyed spending so much time with their dragons. Flying on dragonback might be a relatively primitive way to get around compared to his own experiences, but considering the precedent set by his own TARDIS the Doctor was hardly going to judge anyone for preferring a simpler method of travel.

Admittedly, he would have preferred it if they weren't going into action preparing for a potential conflict, but based on some of the stories the Doctor had heard about dragon hunters and others so far, he supposed that he should be grateful that nobody was going off ready to 'shoot first'. Astrid had insisted on taking her axe, and even Hiccup had grabbed a sword from what seemed to be the Edge's 'armoury' before he joined them on Toothless, but they had accepted the Doctor's lack of interest in taking a weapon even if Turlough had taken up a sword similar to Hiccup's.

Whatever they were about to find when they reached the island, the Doctor already had a few potential theories in mind that might account for whatever was going on in this island archipelago. If the ship Hiccup had told them about had been trying to capture dragons for some reason, that reinforced the Doctor's current tentative theory that someone or something had either introduced the dragons here and/or was 'destined' to take them away, but the problem was working out what could be responsible…

Deciding not to brood too much on that, the Doctor instead used the opportunity to take a closer look at the mechanisms Hiccup was using to keep Toothless in the air. The young Viking hadn't shared many of the specifics about how he'd managed to create Toothless's artificial tail, but considering the technological standards of the time, the Doctor had to confess that he was impressed at what Hiccup had accomplished. Considering the way Toothless flew based on what he'd seen from looking back at the tail during their flight, Hiccup must have spent some time working with Toothless to be able to change the tail mid-flight so that the dragon could fly properly…

Whatever else was going to happen here, the Doctor made a mental note to spend as much time with Sullivan as he could. Flying on a dragon might be a comparatively simple means of getting around compared to some of the transport systems he'd encountered over the years, but his experiences so far had shown that it had a certain thrill that he couldn't ignore the opportunity to try out on his own.

After a few hours of flying, the two dragons and their four riders finally reached the island that Hiccup had mentioned. Once they flew through a series of rock formations around the island, the small group were soon approaching a small cove, with a large amount of debris scattered around the cove, although their gaze was soon focused on the transparent cage holding the large Snafflefang, still lying in the middle of the small pool where Hiccup had left it.

"Whoa," Astrid stared at the scattered fragments as the two dragons landed, letting their four riders off as they examined the wreckage. "And this thing… was flying?"

"And shooting… something at me," Hiccup added, shaking his head as he looked between the wreckage scattered around the beach and the transparent cage in the middle of the pool. "Add in the question of what this thing was doing with a dragon in a cage _inside_ it, and… well, I'm confused."

"I can understand that," the Doctor nodded, looking thoughtfully around the cove.

"So," Hiccup looked curiously at the Doctor after the Time Lord had spent a few moments looking silently around the cove, "any ideas what this is?"

"Nothing that obvious, unfortunately," the Doctor said, crouching down to stare at the cage in the middle of the pool for a moment before he turned to indicate Turlough. "My apprentice and I will take a closer look at some of this wreckage to see if we can find any further clues; could you see about getting that cage out of the pool?"

Nodding in acceptance, Hiccup walked back to Toothless while Astrid did the same to Stormfly, leaving the Doctor and Turlough to walk over to the largest part of the object that only they would recognise as a spaceship.

"So," Turlough asked the Doctor, keeping his voice low as he studied the damaged hull, "do you recognise any of it, or not?"

"Vaguely," the Doctor nodded thoughtfully. "There are certainly elements of the design that invoke memories of the Draconians…"

"Draconians?"

"A reptilian race with a reputation for honour who will lead a vast empire in the future," the Doctor explained, smiling slightly as he looked at Turlough, the two moving into a position behind a rock pillar so that they could talk in relative privacy as the Vikings got back onto their dragons. "I actually became the first non-Draconian to become a member of the Draconian court after I saved them from a lethal plague in my second body about a thousand years from now."

"So… your second was the short one who looked like one of the Beatles impersonating a hobo, right?"

"Essentially, yes," the Doctor said, shooting Turlough a brief glare at that description of his predecessor before he assumed a more contemplative expression as he turned his attention back to the remnants of the crashed ship. "The only problem with that theory is that the Draconians didn't have this kind of technology at this time."

"Pardon?"

"The Draconian Empire is advanced, but that's in the twenty-sixth century, and at that point they were basically on the same level as Earth's own empire in that era," the Doctor explained. "I admit that I haven't visited the Draconian planets very often before I cured that plague I mentioned, but while they had an empire back then, in the equivalent of the twenty-first century, it was contained to a few solar systems around their home galaxy and relied on local hypergates to actually travel to those systems…"

"Hypergate?"

"Precursors to traditional faster-than-light drives; some societies use them when they have trouble working out the necessary equations for faster-than-light navigation," the Doctor explained. "Essentially the travellers involved send sublight ships on ahead to construct 'gates' at certain points that give later ships a target when making the same journey, allowing them to do it much faster."

"I see…" Turlough nodded thoughtfully, recalling a film he'd once found while browsing the TARDIS's electronic archives during a long period in the Vortex. "Like in that… _Lost in Space_ film?"

"If you like," the Doctor nodded, frowning briefly before he continued (from what Turlough recalled, the Doctor had mixed feelings about the science of that film). "The point is that the Draconians used hypergates to establish their early empire and then stopped advancing until they managed to develop traditional hyperdrive shortly after humanity began to expand themselves; nothing I heard suggests that the Draconians would have the necessary technology to reach this far at this point in their history…"

His expression became suddenly grimmer. "Unless this is some variation of what happened to Lord Jack."

"Who?"

"A few decades ago, when I was travelling with Leela, I encountered a group of Victorian soldiers led by Lord Jack Corrigan, who had taken custody of a Drelleran ship after killing most of its crew when they came to Earth in 1895," the Doctor explained. "Lord Jack took their ship to spread the influence of the Victorian Empire across the rest of the galaxy, but after he reached the Drellerans' home planet, the Drellerans infected most of the crew with a virus that would drive them to return to Earth and essentially merge with the rest of humanity."

"Merge with them?" Turlough looked at the Doctor curiously. "How does that work?"

"Lord Jack and his soldiers collapsed down into a mass of flesh that absorbed the crew of the space station they initially made contact with and would have done the same to Earth if they'd reached the planet," the Doctor explained grimly. "The station's medical officer and I were only able to stop it by convincing the Drellerans who'd come to observe what was happening on Earth that humanity wasn't that ruthless any more, encouraging them to give us an antidote, and even then I sometimes wonder what else Lord Jack and his warriors did before the Drellerans stopped them…"

"In other words, another one of those cases where humans were the monsters," Turlough observed with a pointed stare at the Doctor.

"And the heroes," the Doctor countered with a slight smile of his own. "Besides, Lord Jack was more of a product of his time than an outright villain, so it was legitimately fair to argue that humanity had moved on since his time."

"Right," Turlough nodded, clearly deciding to accept that argument rather than start another of their occasional debates about the Doctor's interest in humanity. "Anyway, with that as a precedent, assuming that they acquired a suitable ship, do you think that the Draconians could be responsible for the signal that drew us here?"

"Again, it's not impossible, but it is unlikely," the Doctor conceded. "The Draconians have demonstrated the use of some psychokinetic technology, but it's hard to imagine what they could have brought here that would generate a signal powerful enough to draw the TARDIS off course, and that's assuming it is them in the first place…"

"So in a nutshell, you don't know what's going on, but the most obvious suspect _can't_ be responsible because they didn't officially have the technology to do this yet?"

"And that's before you start thinking about the question of why they'd be trying to capture these dragons in the first place, which leaves us with the over-arching question of what we're actually dealing with here…" the Doctor nodded as he stared at the shattered ship. "Still, it can't be a coincidence that whatever we're dealing with has this many similarities to the Draconians; even if we still have questions over answers, this gives us something to work with."

"And what do we tell them?" Turlough asked as he indicated the dragon riders, who were looking uncertainly at the two time travellers after getting the cage out of the water.

"Nothing until we have something definite to say," the Doctor nodded, before he smiled at his friend. "Besides, for the moment, we have another priority."

"We do?" Turlough looked at the Doctor in surprise.

"Indeed," the Doctor smiled at Turlough as he indicated the still-trapped Snafflefang. "I believe that we need to work on freeing and naming _your_ dragon."

"My dragon?" Turlough repeated incredulously. "This isn't-"

"From what I've learned from Hiccup, I already bonded with Sullivan; if we're going to help these people deal with this, you're going to need a dragon of your own," the Doctor clarified. "Besides, can you honestly admit that you aren't interested in the opportunity?"

"Well…" Turlough stared back at the dragon for a few moments before he gave the Doctor a brief smile of acknowledgement. "I suppose this _would_ be cool…"

With that brief exchange, the Doctor and Turlough went back to join Hiccup and Astrid, who were still studying the transparent cage.

"So…" Hiccup looked curiously at the Doctor. "Any ideas what that thing was?"

"Or why it might be hunting dragons and attacking Hiccup?" Astrid added.

"I have a few theories, but I don't have enough evidence to make a definitive statement right now," the Doctor apologised, before he turned his attention to the transparent cell holding the Snafflefang. "However, I do believe I can resolve one matter right now, if you give me a moment…"

Placing his hands on the metal frame that was the only visible part of the cage, the Doctor ran his hands along it for a few moments before he finally paused at one part of the cage. Astrid started in surprise when the Doctor suddenly grabbed her axe and used the edge of it to lever a panel off the metal barrier around the cage, exposing its internal circuitry.

"What the-?" Asted began, even as the Doctor tossed her axe back and began to pull out the wires and circuits in the frame. It didn't take long before there was a brief flare inside the frame and the Snafflefang leapt out of the cage, only to pause when Turlough was half-shoved into position in front of the large dragon.

"Easy!" the Doctor's companion said, holding up his hand and looking anxiously at the dragon, only shooting a brief glare at the Doctor before he focused on the creature before him. "Easy there, big fellow… nobody's going to hurt you… we just let you out… you're safe now…"

For a moment the other three humans and the two dragons could only look anxiously at the scene before them as Turlough and the Snafflefang stared at each other, the large blue dragon facing the dark-clad red-haired humanoid. Just as the humans were starting to wonder if this had been a good idea, the dragon took a cautious step forward and rubbed its nose against Turlough's hand, letting out a tentative warble that became warmer as it moved closer.

Despite himself, Turlough smiled as the dragon came closer, stretching out his other hand to better stroke its scales before he began to walk cautiously around the creature. There were still a few burnt patches where the Snafflefang must have pressed too hard on the energy barrier that had kept it in the cage for so long, and the dragon flinched when Turlough pressed his hands there, but otherwise it soon became clear that it had accepted Turlough's presence.

"Nice job," Hiccup nodded at Turlough as the redhead finally came back to his original position by the Snafflefang's head.

"Th… thanks," Turlough said, looking back at Hiccup with a slightly dazed expression before he looked at the Doctor. "I… I'm actually going to _ride_ a _dragon_?"

"And people back home wonder why I enjoy travelling so much," the Doctor shook his head as he glanced upwards. "I would certainly never have had chances like _this_ if I'd stayed at home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hope you all like my choice of dragon for Turlough and my hints at the alien race involved; if you want to know more about the Draconians, I recommend the Third Doctor episode 'Frontier in Space' and the Sixth Doctor audio 'Paper Cuts' in particular, but I'll affirm in advance that the Draconians themselves aren't the villains here, although they _do_ play their part.
> 
> On another continuity note, the Doctor's tale about Lord Jack occurred in the Fourth Doctor audio 'Destination Nerva', which I can also recommend as a fascinating example of the Doctor's audio adventures.


	8. The Dragon Eye

"So," Tuffnut looked curiously at the returned group as they stood around the training arena, the teens' dragons sitting on the outskirts of the circle to watch them while Sulivan rested in his tank and the Snafflefang watched from the side, "we're dealing with people who are flying around in metal ships, capturing dragons in invisible cages, and have some kind of… tracking stuff in their nets so they can find anything that gets away from them?"

"Are you _sure_ this isn't some _really_ incredible Loki-inspired prank?" Ruffnut asked with an eager grin.

"Or someone making a _really_ weird joke?" Snotlout observed with a pointed glare.

"Really?" Astrid looked pointedly at Snotlout. "Do you really think I'd go along with something like that?"

"And where did this dragon come from if we're lying?" Turlough added, indicating the large Snafflefang sitting on the edge of the pier alongside the other dragons.

"Not to mention Turlough and I wouldn't take part in that kind of joke either," the Doctor put in. "Granted, I acknowledge that you don't know either of us well enough to believe me on that front, but after what we've seen of her, I feel that Astrid's original point is still valid."

"….shut up, Doc," Snotlout groaned as he folded his arms.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," the Doctor observed with a smile before he turned back to Hiccup. "In any case, now that we have an idea of what we're dealing with, it gives Turlough and I a chance to consider the options and work on our next move."

"Work on it?" Tuffnut looked at the Doctor in surprise. "What's wrong with just finding these guys and blasting them out of the islands?"

"Basically the same reason I'd assume that you haven't done that to the dragon hunters you already knew about," Turlough answered for his travelling companion.

"No real idea where they are and likely to be too big to take on directly?"

"That works."

"Coupled with the fact that we still aren't entirely sure what we're dealing with anyway," the Doctor added.

"I thought you said you recognised all that… stuff?" Astrid said, waving a hand uncertainly in the direction of the island they'd just visited even as she looked at the Doctor.

"Only in the sense that the remains looked similar to the tools and ships used by… another group I have encountered in my travels, and even then they only bear a passing similarity to the work of the culture in question," the Doctor explained. "It would be like me assuming that you and… name another tribe you know in these parts?"

"The Berserkers?"

"Really?" the Doctor looked at Ruffnut in surprise before he shrugged and continued. "In any case, if I assumed that the Draconians were behind this based on available evidence, it would be like me finding pieces of Berserker armour at a sacked village and assuming that you were responsible for it just because I know you and everything I've found looks like it came from your tribe."

"Even when the Berserkers tend to leave everything really battered and use darker colours for everything?" Snotlout asked.

"How would I know that?" the Doctor pointed out. "I only know about _you_ , remember?"

"But we just told-!"

"He's treating this as a hypothetical scenario, Snotlout; don't you get that?" Hiccup looked at his cousin in frustration.

"I… _think_ I get you," Astrid nodded, looking at the Doctor in an approving manner. "So you know of something _similar_ to this tribe, but it's different enough that you can't be sure it's them…"

"Hey!" Snotlout yelled. "Enough about all that crap; what does… hypo-whatever have to do with anything?"

"He's explaining why he can't assume who's behind this by giving us an example we can follow, Snotlout," the blonde warrior explained with a familiar sense of exasperation in her manner as she looked at Snotlout.

"OK," Hiccup raised a hand as he looked at the Doctor. "For Snotlout's benefit, to be sure that we're all on the same page here, you think that whoever's controlling those… flying machines… and hunting dragons with those nets are _like_ these… Draconians… but only to the extent that we're… like the Berserkers?"

"Obviously I can't say for certain without knowing more about either these Berserkers or our new potential opponents, but that's essentially a good way to assess where things stand based on our current evidence," the Doctor nodded, before his expression became even grimmer. "And it still doesn't explain how they got here; even if they aren't Draconians, they're certainly closely related, and nothing I know of the Draconians' original culture suggests that they ever travelled this far…"

"We can worry about that when we've had a chance to confront these new hunters directly," Astrid cut him off.

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded thoughtfully between Astrid and the Doctor. "Not gonna lie here, I'm still freaking out about the flying machine thing, but that… well, I guess I get what you're telling us."

"On the topic of new things," Fishlegs put in, looking curiously at Turlough, "you still haven't told us what you're going to call your dragon."

"I… you're serious?" Turlough looked between Fishlegs and the Snafflefang in surprise. "I was all for helping this thing escape, but I can't be a rider-"

"You already bonded with him, he needs help, and the rest of us already have dragons of our own," Hiccup affirmed. "That Snafflefang wants to stick around, and it obviously likes you, so it's all on you to make sure it's properly cared for."

"It could be a good experience for you, Turlough," the Doctor put in with that same frustrating smile he often used when he was making an argument Turlough couldn't protest against. "We're in a dangerous situation facing unknown foes; having your own dragon to assist you could be useful."

"I'm not really one for pets-"

"He's not a pet," Hiccup looked at Turlough with the kind of cool stare Turlough expected to see from the Doctor rather than a young Viking. "Once you bond with a dragon, it's your partner, your ally, and a close friend. Snafflefangs aren't dragons we've come across very often, but they're stubborn, strong, and focused when they have a goal; the only thing this guy needs is a rider who can help him when things get ugly, and if the Doctor sets a precedent, I think you can pull this off."

Turlough stared between the Doctor and Hiccup for a few moments, wondering how he had managed to run into someone so like his unconventional mentor in a culture this far removed from the society that had created the Doctor, until he sighed and looked at Fishlegs.

"Well… you said this type of dragon is Boulder-class, right?"

"Yes…" Fishlegs nodded curiously.

"All right…" Turlough said, thoughtfully studying the large beast for a few moments, the Snafflefang staring back at him with a tentative smile, before he nodded. "Alcatraz."

"Alcatraz?" Snotlout asked.

"It's a famous prison back where we come from," Turlough explained, reaching out to stroke the dragon's nose, with the newly-named Alcatraz giving a rumble of approval. "It's commonly known as 'the Rock', and it has a reputation for being basically inescapable."

"I see," the Doctor nodded at Turlough. "Interesting choice, but I suppose it makes sense."

"Thank you," Turlough nodded back at the Doctor, even as he kept tentatively stroking Alcatraz's snout. He supposed he could have used a name from Trion's history, but even after that mess with Rennol and Deela, Turlough didn't like the idea of sharing more about his past than was absolutely necessary, and he had to admit that parts of Earth's history weren't without their appeal to him.

"Yeah, on the topic of things making 'sense'," Snotlout put in as he held up a small round object, "why didn't you tell us you'd found a new lens?"

"What?" Hiccup looked at his cousin in confusion at the sudden shift.

"This thing?" Snotlout said, holding out a small metal circle with a glass interior. "I mean, I found it on the ground and figured you'd just dropped it-"

"Oh no…" the Doctor said, grabbing the circle from Snotlout's fingers with one hand and putting on his glasses to take a closer look, only to sit back with a relieved sigh. "It's all right, it's not one of the trackers."

"Trackers?" Ruffnut repeated.

"From the net Hiccup helped us dispose of earlier," Turlough clarified, before he looked curiously at Snotlout. "Why did you think it was a lens?"

"Because it looks like the Dragon Eye lenses we've been tracking since we got here?"

"It does?" the Doctor looked at Snotlout with new interest as he put his glasses away before he held the small metal-and-glass circle out to Hiccup. "Does that mean you've seen something like this before?"

"Well…" Hiccup said, taking the circle from the Doctor and taking a moment to examine it more closely before he slowly nodded at the Time Lord. "I mean, the way you were talking about someone being able to track that net I was more focused on getting it away from here than taking a closer look at its design at the time, but… if this came from that net… yeah, it _does_ look a bit like a lens…"

" _Snotlout_ ," Astrid practically growled as she drew her axe to point it at Snotlout's neck, "I thought we made it clear that you need to _think_ before talking about the Eye in front of anyone who isn't one of us?"

"Well… c'mon, you all already agreed that these two aren't hunters-!"

"Which _doesn't_ mean that we tell them about the Dragon Eye-!"

"But," the Doctor cut in before Astrid could get more frustrated with Snotlout, shooting the two Vikings his familiarly casual smile, "considering that you've brought it to my attention, and it would appear that it will have some relevance to what we're dealing with, can you show me now?"

Hiccup glared at Snotlout for a few moments, before he sighed and nodded in resignation.

"Follow me," he said, shaking his head in exasperation at his cousin before he began to walk towards his own hut. After Turlough gave Alcatraz a final pat on the nose, he joined the Doctor as the Time Lord followed Hiccup, Astrid and the twins close behind while Fishlegs and Snotlout remained with the dragons as though some unspoken agreement.

Once they were inside the hut, Hiccup went to his bed and removed a small chest from underneath it, which he opened to reveal a brown tube-like device with various gold rings around it, with strange symbols carved into it. One end resembled a dragon's mouth, albeit designed in a style that put the Doctor in mind of generic dragon images rather than any of the dragons he'd seen since arriving in this archipelago, with a lens fitted in the middle of its mouth. The other end of the tube had seven buttons on it, with symbols carved into the buttons that put the Doctor in mind of some of the dragons he'd encountered; one button had a design that put him in mind of Stormfly's head-spines, and another made him think of what Toothless's tail would look like if the Night Fury's original tail was still intact…

"This," Hiccup explained as he turned back to the Doctor and Turlough, "is the Dragon Eye."

"A telescope?" Turlough asked.

"A what?"

"Not important," the Doctor waved a hand at Turlough as he looked earnestly at Hiccup. "What does this device do?"

"That's where these come in," Hiccup continued, showing the Doctor a set of lenses that were in the box with the Eye, each lens holding a slightly different shade of glass in its centre. "Basically, if a dragon generates its flame behind the Eye, the Eye displays a wide variety of information about all kinds of dragons, ranging from telling us about the different dragon species to giving us maps to the islands where they live."

"Fascinating," the Doctor nodded, looking over the lenses for a moment before he looked at Hiccup, one hand hovering over the box. "May I?"

After Hiccup nodded, the Doctor picked up one of the lenses and studied it closely, nodding thoughtfully for a few moments before he turned back to Hiccup. "Where did you find it?"

"Find it?" Turlough repeated curiously.

"What makes you think we didn't make it?" Tuffnut asked.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I somehow doubt our hosts created these things on their own," the Doctor responded to Tuffnut's query before looking at Hiccup with a curious smile. "It's a fascinating device, and I'm curious about how it works, but I doubt you made it yourself."

"Yeah," the one-legged Viking nodded tentatively. "We found it on a wrecked ship about a year ago, and we found a few other lenses for it since we set up the Edge."

"More of these things?" Turlough indicated the box. "And they each have different information on them?"

"And they even give us new information if we basically mix different lenses together," Hiccup added. "We have to adjust the other controls on the Eye to get everything possible out of it, and we've found that it creates new information depending on what dragon's illuminating it, but we're getting a good feel for how it all works."

"And you don't know where the Eye or the lenses came from?" the Doctor asked, his attention returning to the lens he was studying. "Interesting…"

"We're fairly sure that the wreck where we found it was originally a Dragon Hunter ship, but we still haven't really found anything about where they got the Eye from in the first place," Hiccup added.

"So?" Ruffnut looked curiously at the Doctor. "What's the net got to do with the lenses?"

"I mean, these circle things _do_ look a bit like the lenses, but couldn't that just be a coincidence?" Tuffnut put in, walking over to compare the circle and the lenses himself.

"Considering the potential implications of where these new hunters came from, it's not _that_ likely to be a coincidence," the Doctor said as he looked around at the six young Vikings before turning his attention to the lenses, picking one of them up and holding it to his eye. "Interesting…"

"What?" Hiccup asked.

"Something I'll need more time to think about before I commit myself to anything," the Doctor answered, before he turned to look back at Sullivan with a thoughtful smile. "And on the topic of thinking about things, if Turlough and I are going to be of any help to you in working out who's responsible for all this, I'm sure we'd both appreciate some help learning more about our new friends here."

"You want help training them?" Hiccup smiled.

"After what we just-?" Astrid began.

"I appreciate that you're concerned about these new hunters, but we can't do anything about them until we have a better idea what we're dealing with," the Doctor cut her off. "If we're going to find anything more about them, I for one would prefer to know what we have to work with before we start trying to seek a fight."

"You think that's likely?" Turlough asked.

"If we're right, these people are actively hunting what may be the most powerful living beings on Earth at this time; I think we can assume that a confrontation of some sort will take place here."

The fact that the Doctor was so certain of the possibility of future conflict was enough to make Turlough worried, particularly when he recalled the Doctor's recent concerns about creating new timelines by taking an active role in history.

He wanted to believe the best of his friend, but when they _knew_ dragons weren't around in the future… and the Doctor had been willing to face the prospect of his own death in order to preserve the timeline during their reunion with Nyssa and that mess with the Cractids…

He refused to even think the thought in full, but he had to wonder how far the Doctor would go when it came to a choice between his principles as a Time Lord and what he stood for as the Doctor…


	9. Saving Scauldy

As much as Turlough had been uncertain about the whole idea of training a dragon when it was initially presented to him, he had to admit that it was easy to see the appeal once he got on the creature's back. The newly-named Alcatraz seemed to respond well to Turlough's efforts to attract its interest, and Hiccup had managed to put together a surprisingly comfortable pair of saddles for Alcatraz and Sullivan once he had the time to sew them.

The Doctor was still being cautious about actually getting on the dragon's back when Sullivan's injured wing was still healing, but he was now taking the Tide Glider for careful walks around the island, as well as the occasional dip in the ocean. He claimed that this was just his way of bonding with the dragon, but Turlough wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Doctor was conducting his own, non-invasive but advanced scientific tests on Sullivan to help his efforts to learn how creatures like this could exist. Hiccup had shared a few stories of some of the other dragon breeds he and his friends had encountered over the years, including dragons that apparently dug tunnels through the ground with rotating teeth to giant dragons that had apparently been able to control the smaller dragons.

Admittedly, none of the locals had the scientific knowledge to give the Doctor more information about dragon biology than what they'd told him already, but the Doctor was getting a few interesting ideas on his own. Since the Doctor had confirmed that he only had theories about whoever or whatever might be after the dragons, and none of those theories could go any further until he had evidence, he had asked for one of the Riders to accompany Turlough in retrieving the TARDIS from the island where they'd originally landed. He had naturally described it as a kind of 'treasure chest' containing some of his books and equipment that might help him identify what they were dealing with, but the dragon riders had accepted the story easily enough.

The Doctor would have preferred to come for the TARDIS himself, but Sullivan's wing still needed time to heal, and with the Doctor's new interest in learning to fly on the dragon he had agreed with Hiccup's observation that it would be better for him to stay with the Tide Glider until Sullivan was back in flying condition rather than have his first flight on another dragon. With access to Sullivan's healing saliva, it was estimated that it should only take another couple of days to get the dragon back in flight-ready condition, but the Doctor wanted to secure his equipment before the situation became more complicated.

Having talked with the other riders, Turlough had agreed to take Fishlegs with him when they went to retrieve the TARDIS. As the Doctor and Hiccup had each agreed, Fishlegs was an experienced dragon rider who could easily give Turlough a few pointers about riding a dragon without needing to slow down his own efforts or leave Turlough feeling like he had to push himself to keep up with the other man. The fact that Alcatraz was another Boulder-class dragon only reinforced the value of this approach, as Fishlegs could give Turlough the benefit of his own experience training Meatlug when dealing with Alcatraz, even if they both recognised that the two dragons had a few subtle differences. Alcatraz had proven to be a fairly friendly dragon, responding easily to Turlough's instructions as Hiccup prepared a saddle for them, and had shown no issue working with Meatlug when Turlough and Fishlegs had left the Edge for the island.

Turlough recognised that he had flown faster than the dragon was capable of even without taking his various spaceships into account, but there was something to be said for the experience of travelling fully exposed to the elements rather than inside a contained cockpit. Fishlegs had given Turlough a few 'on-the-job' pointers as they flew back to the island where the TARDIS had materialised, such as how to direct Alcatraz to take up a hovering position or change direction mid-flight, but for the most part he had expressed approval of how Turlough was bonding with the dragon this early in their partnership.

"They're remarkable, aren't they?" Turlough said, feeling the need to voice his thoughts for once.

"Dragons?" Fishlegs looked at him with a smile. "Yeah, I know; even when we were enemies, I found everything about them fascinating. Just the idea that one type of animal could have so many variations, bringing together their own unique strengths and weaknesses…"

"How did you even fight them back then?"

"Well… it was a mix of luring them into traps and catching them by surprise; keep in mind that we didn't exactly finish _conventional_ dragon-training before Hiccup killed the Red Death, so it's hard to be sure if there were further tricks we never got around to learning, but some tricks included disorientating the dragons with sound or trying to take out the wings…"

"There we are!" Turlough called out, pointing at the coastline that was now visible in the distance. Patting Alcatraz in the centre of the head as he had been previously instructed, Turlough smiled as the dragon briefly accelerated onwards before slowing down as they came in closer to the island.

"You're sure this is-?" Turlough began, before his eyes fell on the distinctive blue shape of the TARDIS, further inland and partially hidden under some of the island's trees. "Never mind; I see it."

"Huh," Fishlegs looked in surprise at where Turlough was pointing as the two dragons headed for the island. "That's what you're here for? I mean, we probably missed it the first time around because we were coming in from a different angle, but what was it doing here?"

"The Doctor likes to keep his equipment on-hand rather than… on our boat… when he's conducting his research," Turlough explained. "Frankly, any ship we're on is just somewhere to get us to our next destination; this box is more of a home to the Doctor than anything."

"Really?" Fishlegs looked sceptically at the TARDIS as Alcatraz flew down, nudged the box slightly, and then grabbed it in his forepaws before it could completely fall over.

"Whatever we're dealing with right now… well, if the Doctor hasn't encountered it himself, it's a safe bet that it will be on record somewhere here."

"He has a lot of things in there?" Fishlegs looked at Turlough in surprise, as the two dragons got back in the air and began to fly towards the Edge.

"Books, tools… ingredients for medicines and all that… if he doesn't have it in there, it's because he can always be fairly sure he'll find it if he needs it," Turlough nodded. "I know it doesn't seem that big, but the Doctor… he can get a lot in a seemingly small space."

"And… the design?"

"It's… it has meaning back where we're from," Turlough said (technically that wasn't even a lie; the Doctor visited Britain in particular so often it might as well be where they came from, even if none of the TARDIS's current residents came from Earth in the first place). "The Doctor thought that hiding everything in that box would make it more secure; people aren't inclined to look in it, you know."

"I… see," Fishlegs said as he brought Meatlug into position alongside Alcatraz, sounding a bit sceptical at the explanation even if he seemed like he accepted it, before he shrugged and changed the topic. "So… how did you become the Doctor's apprentice?"

"That's… an involved story," Turlough said, quashing his still-lingering resentment at only being considered the Doctor's apprentice; as the Doctor had observed, they needed a cover that the locals would accept. "Actually, when I met him I'd been ordered to kill him."

" _Kill_ him?" Fishlegs looked at Turlough in surprise, and even Meatlug seemed to be looking at him with a startled expression.

"An old enemy of his saved me from an accident because he had been following the Doctor and worked out that I'd soon be in a position to meet him," Turlough explained, trying to sound more flippant about it than he'd felt at the time; discussing the idea that the Doctor had been marked for death by the personification of universal chaos would just make things too complicated. "He offered me access to the Doctor's resources if I'd kill the Doctor, but eventually the Doctor realised what was going on, drove his enemy off, and let me stay with him anyway."

"Huh," Fishlegs looked at Turlough with new curiosity. "That's an… interesting way to get an apprentice."

"It's… all rather complicated, I'll admit," Turlough shrugged, biting back the urge to reject the label of 'apprentice' to focus on the situation in front of them. "But that's the Doctor for you; he makes a lot of enemies in his travels."

"As a travelling scholar?"

"He started out that way, but even if he still considers that his main purpose, he tends to use the knowledge he's gathered over the years to oppose anyone or anything who might try to oppress others."

"Ah," Fishlegs smiled in understanding, reaching over to affectionately caress what Turlough assumed were Meatlug's ears. "A bit like Hiccup, huh?"

"He gets caught up in defending people a lot?"

"He's been pretty much the main person in favour of protecting dragons ever since he killed the Red Death," Fishlegs affirmed. "I think it's because he didn't have much in his life before he made friends with Toothless; he might have been the heir to the chief, but… well, he wasn't exactly a regular Viking."

"I noticed," Turlough smiled, feeling Alcatraz adjust his grip on the TARDIS underneath him. The two continued to fly in silence for a few more moments before a thought came to Turlough. "By the way, there's something I've been meaning to ask about; what did… Tuffnut… mean when he suggested that putting a lot of dragon eggs together would be a bad idea?"

"The eggs explode."

"Explode?" Turlough looked at Fishlegs in surprise. "How does that work as a survival strategy?"

"The shells are pretty much rock-hard and explode when the babies are ready to be born," Fishlegs explained, smiling slightly at the memory. "We… well, dragons use water to make sure their eggs don't cause too much damage when they hatch, but we had an incident back on Berk shortly after we started training dragons where Meatlug's hatchlings… well, it was stupid."

"You put them somewhere out in the open without realising how they hatched?"

"Yes," Fishlegs looked at him in surprise. "How did you-?"

"You'd be surprised how often people make similarly stupid mistakes out there," Turlough shrugged. "The Doctor-"

The sound of a loud roar drew their attention away from their conversation. Looking in the direction of the roar, the two young men saw a metal shape, matching Hiccup's description of the thing that had been holding the Snafflefang, chasing something in the water. It was moving at a comparatively slower speed than the ship Hiccup had described previously, even if it was still moving at a fairly rapid rate compared to the other dragons, but once they got in closer it became clear that the dragon the ship was chasing was actually larger than it. Turlough could just make out a large green shape with a thin but high head and a long neck, apparently 'flying' through the water as it swam, occasionally surfacing to let out a loud roar before it dived down again.

"Do you recognise that dragon?" he looked over at Fishlegs.

"Scauldron," Fishlegs answered, the two riders quickly but carefully moving around to a position behind the other ship; Turlough was surprised that Alcatraz didn't seem to be significantly slower than Meatlug even with the 'handicap' of the TARDIS, but supposed that his dragon's larger size would help to make up for that. "They're

"So… dangerous, but not more so than any other dragon?"

"We've encountered a couple of troublesome ones, but they're manageable," Fishlegs confirmed, as Meatlug and Alcatraz settled into a surprisingly good pace just behind the apparent dragon-hunter's shuttle. It didn't seem as though the pilot had noticed the Gronkle and the Snafflefang as they took up their new position just behind him, but Turlough was definitely going to stay alert. For the moment, the hunters seemed to be too focused on their original target to spot the other dragons, but he couldn't rely on that in case they turned around or increased their scanner range-

"Wait a minute…" Fishlegs said, bringing Meatlug down to a position closer to the water, the bulky Viking leaning over to peer at the swimming dragon below them for a moment before his eyes widened. " _Scauldy_!"

"What-?" Turlough asked, before the green dragon let out a roar and briefly leapt out of the water, revealing a strange assemblage on the dragon's wing that seemed to combine wood, vines and what Turlough could swear was hair. The dragon swiftly submerged before he could take in more details, but that was enough to give Turlough a likely answer to his question.

"I take it you know that dragon?" he looked over at the Viking for confirmation as Meatlug moved back into position beside Alcatraz.

"We found him stuck on a beach a couple of years ago when his wing was wounded in an avalanche," Fishlegs explained, even as Meatlug began to fly slightly faster. "Ruffnut managed to train him and then we splinted his wing with some nearby vines and even parts of Ruffnut's hair…"

Turlough's interest in the story was suddenly diverted when the two dragons let out startled roars as energy blasts burst from the ship's wings, nearly striking Scauldy before the Scauldron dived back into the water. The energy blasts briefly made the water boil beneath them, but a glance at Fishlegs was enough for Turlough to confirm that his current associate was more focused on protecting the dragon than the nature of the weapons being used against them.

"OK, we _have_ to stop this!" Fishlegs said, anxiously indicating the fleeing dragon. "Can you think of any way we could drive them off?"

"Go for the ends of the wings!" Turlough said, quickly assessing the ship and hoping he had chosen his target correctly. He didn't know how powerful these ships were, particularly when the Doctor still hadn't identified what they were dealing with, but at least it wasn't hard to identify what the weapons were on this thing based on his own experience, and everything he'd seen suggested that dragons could hit really hard when they had the chance.

Spurring Alcatraz on while taking care to keep an eye on the TARDIS, Turlough managed to position the dragon in a manner that lined him up with the small weapons on the end of the ship's wings without making himself too obvious to the pilot. From what Turlough could see, the front 'window' of this ship didn't offer a very wide range of vision, so he assumed that the sensors were just too focused on the dragon they were hunting to notice something else if the dragons weren't too blatant about it. Looking over, he waited to confirm that Fishlegs had followed his example before he signalled to the Viking to act, the two dragons launching fireballs at the tips of the ship's wings. The initial blast didn't do much, but the next few fireballs had a more visible impact, swiftly reducing the guns to little more than limp metal spears.

The ship seemed to slow down further as though preparing to assess what had just happened, but Fishlegs immediately seized the opportunity as he directed Meatlug to take up position in front of the aircraft and slam her tail into the 'nose' of its cockpit. The sudden impact knocked the ship down towards the ocean before it could stop itself, striking the water with such force that the tips of the already-damaged wings were torn off as it tried to pull itself up. Turlough was just about to ask Fishlegs for another option when the Scauldron leapt out of the water and fired a burst of scalding hot water at the damaged ship, sending it spiralling backwards before it regained control of itself. For a moment Turlough thought that the ship was going to continue its pursuit, but apparently seeing three dragons facing it was enough to make whoever was controlling it decide that enough was enough, as the ship turned around and rose back into the sky, making a rapid departure at a far faster speed than what it had demonstrated when chasing the dragon.

"…OK," Fishlegs said, looking over at Turlough. "I'm not the only one thinking that it's a bad sign if they can go that fast, right?"

"It doesn't bode well, anyway," Turlough conceded. He might not have the Doctor's breadth of experience, but he had seen enough to know that anyone holding back from their full potential in this kind of situation had a reason for doing it, and from what they had seen so far Turlough doubted that reason was a benevolent one.

_Are they conserving power for some reason, or do they just want to draw it out for the fun…?_

Turlough's thoughts were cut short when he heard an unfamiliar screeching roar, but glanced to the side to the see that it was just 'Scauldy', now doing what Turlough could only think of as the dragon equivalent of the doggie-paddle as it exchanged a friendly nuzzle with Meatlug.

"It recognises you, then?" Turlough said, as Alcatraz offered a similarly friendly rumble to the water dragon when it turned to face him, even if neither of them moved in closer.

"Dragons have good memories," Fishlegs smiled, nodding slightly at Scauldy. "We met one dragon shortly after he'd hatched, and he still recognised us when he came back to Berk as an adult-"

Fishlegs' explanation was interrupted when Scauldy let out a final roar and dived back underwater, leaving the other two dragons hovering in the air for a moment before Fishlegs turned Meatlug back towards the Edge, Turlough and Alcatraz close behind as they still held the TARDIS.

"Should we be worried about Scauldy?"

"Hopefully he'll be able to stay away now that he knows these new hunters are out there," Fishlegs said, looking after the dragon with a grim expression on his face before he looked back at Turlough. "But if they're driving Scauldy here, they're obviously reaching beyond the Edge; it's been a while since we saw Scauldy, but Tidal-class dragons don't go this far out of their usual hunting grounds unless they absolutely have to, and he was a lot closer to Berk than this…"

"In other words, whatever we're dealing with is casting a wider net," Turlough reflected. "What we need to work out now is if they're just hunting here because there are a lot of dragons here, or if…"

"If what?" Fishlegs asked.

Turlough didn't answer, but the grim expression on the Viking's face made it clear that he'd realised what Turlough wasn't saying; they still didn't know if the Doctor's observations about the Dragon Eye meant anything, but it was clear there were still details about this situation none of them knew in depth.

Whoever these hunters were, they were increasing the range of their hunting pattern while the dragon riders had no way to even work out where their enemies were operating from, and Turlough still didn't even know for sure what the Doctor was going to do when the time came for him to make a choice.


	10. Kindred Spirits

Even when he'd been teaching himself how to ride vortisaurs, the Doctor wasn't sure he'd ever been quite this enthusiastically apprehensive about training an animal. He appreciated that dragons weren't quite as dangerous to him as vortisaurs, particularly when there was no indication that dragons actually liked the idea of eating people, but standing in front of the Tide Glider, the Doctor still felt that there was a certain edge to this situation that he hadn't felt when trying to ride vortisaurs in the Academy.

_Of course, back then I was just riding vortisaurs because everyone else was doing it; here I'm trying to protect innocent creatures and solve a historical mystery…_

Looking over the saddle that Hiccup had created for the dragon, the Doctor had to admit that he was impressed. Keeping in mind that Hiccup and the other riders had to make these things by hand and individually modify them for each dragon, without the 'comfort' of a standard template that they could use for all species like if this had been created for a horse, the saddle was a remarkable piece of work, each stitch carefully in place and the leatherwork adjusted to be comfortable for both dragon and rider.

As Sullivan was a Tide-class dragon, the saddle had to be modified to adjust to the possibility that the dragon would spend some time in the water even if Hiccup acknowledged that the Doctor was unlikely to join the dragon when he submerged himself. As Hiccup had pointed out that his coat would just add unnecessary drag to Sullivan's flight when the two were training together, the Doctor had eventually agreed to leave his coat behind when flying with the dragon so long as Hiccup added a few extra pockets to the saddle so that the Doctor could take a few extra items with him in the absence of his usual pockets. With Turlough and Fishlegs away bringing the TARDIS to the Edge, Astrid, the twins and Snotlout on patrol, and Sullivan's injuries apparently fully healed, Hiccup and the Doctor had each agreed that it was time for him to have his first official flying lesson.

"You ready there?" Hiccup asked, from where he was sitting on Toothless at the other side of the small clearing that had been chosen for the start of their lesson.

"As ready as I'll ever be," the Doctor confirmed, as he carefully slung his leg over the crouching dragon. The position was slightly uncomfortable, but the dragon felt solid and reassuring under the Doctor, along with a certain positive vibe to the creature that the Doctor had never felt from the vortisaurs he had rode in the past. "Shall we?"

"Let's go," Hiccup grinned, as he patted Toothless's neck and the black dragon flew off into the sky. Despite himself, the Doctor stared in awe at the rapid pace of the other dragon before he squeezed Sullivan's sides with his knees to prompt the other dragon to lift off, the slender blue dragon soon settling into a position just behind Hiccup and Toothless. It wasn't hard for the Doctor to deduce that Hiccup was keeping Toothless at a slower pace so that Sullivan could keep up with the other dragon, but he appreciated having a more experienced instructor available to confirm that he was treating the dragon properly as they began to fly.

The next few minutes were focused on mastering a few key essentials, such as Hiccup advising the Doctor on how to adjust his position in the saddle to accommodate the dragon's flight or relaxing his grip when Sullivan slowed down, but once those first minutes had gone by the Doctor was surprised at just how responsive Sullivan was to his commands. He didn't know if the dragon had some subtle mental abilities or if the species as a whole was just very intuitive- he regretted that he hadn't practiced his telepathy as often as he might, but that close call with the Waro had been _very_ off-putting- but the Tide Glider was responding to his instructions with an ease that it had taken him lifetimes to develop with the TARDIS.

Granted, the TARDIS had far more travel options than the dragon, and he couldn't ignore the impact those security protocols had on his ability to control her before his capture and exile led to them being deleted, but there was still something to be said for being able to go off for a glide and know you wouldn't run into anything dangerous on short notice before you reached your intended destination…

"So how're you doing?" the young Viking asked as the Night Fury took up position alongside Sullivan as they flew through the air.

"Quite well, thanks," the Doctor replied, reminding himself that he had to talk as though flying of any kind was a new experience for him. "You've really been doing this for years?"

"Well, Toothless and I had a few issues when we started out, what with us needing to work out how to move together so that his lost tail wouldn't be too big of a problem, but we got past all that quickly enough," Hiccup explained.

"Yes, Fishlegs and the twins mentioned that you were the first one to train a dragon when we met," the Doctor observed as the dragons settled into a steady forward momentum, nothing visible ahead of them but clear seas and skies. "It must have been an intimidating prospect, having to do something so completely new on your own."

"Maybe, but at the time… well, I know it was dangerous, but that was the first time I really felt like I knew exactly where I was meant to be and what I should be doing; Toothless genuinely needed me to get off the ground, he actually appreciated my efforts on his behalf…"

"Family issues?" the Doctor smiled in understanding.

"Well… when you're the son of the chief who's meant to have popped off a dragon's head when he was still in the cradle back when we were still at war with them, it doesn't exactly give your tribe the best image of their future when his son's… this," Hiccup replied, indicating his entire body.

"I can imagine," the Doctor smiled in understanding. "There's nothing harder than facing expectations you already know you won't be able to live up to."

"You've been there?"

"Well… before I began my travels, back at my family home, the head of my… clan, to use an appropriate term… he simply wanted me to follow the plan he'd set up for me rather than pay any attention to what I wanted to do with my life," the Doctor explained, surprised to find himself reflecting on a time of his life he barely thought about any more.

"And you didn't like what he wanted you to do?"

"Let's just say he had certain political aspirations he wanted me to fulfil on his behalf when I would have been happy just travelling," the Doctor mused.

He would never have shared that kind of information with someone he wasn't even travelling with- he wasn't sure if he'd told that particular story to anyone apart from Susan, for obvious reasons- but hearing Hiccup's story just made him think back on those lonely days when he'd had nothing but his idle dreams of future travels to get away from the loneliness he felt at Lungbarrow…

"Huh," Hiccup said thoughtfully. "Can't decide if that makes your dad better or worse than mine used to be; Dad always just wanted me to be more like him… of course, I basically wanted to be what he wanted me to be, even if I was doing it my own way…"

"Quences was more the head of my family than my actual _father_ , but… well, make of it what you will," the Doctor shrugged. "Anyway, from what I've heard, I assume that you and Toothless went on to teach others how to train dragons, made peace with them, and eventually we ended up where we are now? Exploring new dragons with the information stored in the Dragon Eye?"

"Well, when I found it, I'd been at a bit of a loose end…" Hiccup shrugged awkwardly. "I mean, we'd dealt with all of our local threats from humans and Vikings, we had a pretty good understanding of everything around us… Astrid tried to understand my issues, but there was only so much she was really interested in back then…"

"At least you had someone who was willing to try," the Doctor smiled at the young man. "When I was in your position I only had one Cousin who cared about me; everyone else just treated me as a mistake or were perfectly happy for me to be left out of special occasions."

"Harsh."

"I dealt with it for the most part, but… well, some things never entirely go away."

Once again, the Doctor was surprised to find himself sharing even that much about the family he hadn't thought much about since he'd left Gallifrey. It was uncharacteristic, but something about Hiccup's reflections on his past inspired a certain sense of sympathy that he felt almost obliged to reciprocate by looking back on his own experience of life on the outside.

"Did you ever…?"

"Not really," the Doctor said, guessing what Hiccup was about to ask. "Things reached a point where I had to get away from my home or be accused of… well, things I hadn't done… and that was it."

"You never went back?"

"Oh, I've been home a few times, but I… haven't been in contact with my _family_ specifically," the Doctor explained, suddenly wishing that he hadn't brought this topic up. "If they wanted to get back in touch, there's nothing stopping them from visiting me when I'm back, and all the accusations made against me have been dropped, but the way everything ended… well, they made it clear I wasn't welcome any more, so I see no point in going back to them myself."

"Ah," Hiccup looked apologetically at the Doctor. "Uh… sorry if I brought up anything… difficult."

"It doesn't matter," the Doctor smiled reassuringly at the young Viking, already determined to put those dark memories aside. "In any case, Turlough and my other… apprentices… are more of a family to me than they ever were; we have our differences, but everyone who joins me is in some way looking for somewhere to belong, and I like to think I help them find that place if I can."

"Nice," Hiccup nodded at the Doctor, before he assumed a more serious expression. "So… with what Snotlout pointed out about those things from the net, and what you've seen of the Eye… you think there's some connection between the Eye and these new hunters?"

"It's possible, but I'm unwilling to guess in more detail at the moment," the Doctor responded, wishing he had a better answer for the young man. "If I could take a look at the Eye myself, maybe I could come up with better ideas?"

"…So long as I'm with you when you're doing it," Hiccup decided after a moment's thought.

"Really?"

"I mean, I don't exactly want the knowledge on that thing getting out, but I…" Hiccup shook his head and smiled slightly as he looked at the Doctor. "Don't ask me to explain _why_ , but… I trust you."

"Thank you, Hiccup," the Doctor nodded back at the young man. "If this Eye is anything like as fascinating as it sounds from your tales, if anyone in this world had to find it, I'm glad it was you."

"…Thanks," Hiccup nodded at his strange new friend, before he turned his attention back to Toothless and Sullivan. "Well, flight training's going well; shall we get back to the Edge and see if Turlough and Fishlegs got your stuff?"


	11. The Secret of the Eyes

"That's it?" Astrid looked sceptically between the Doctor standing at her side and the blue box being carried by their new Snafflefang 'acquaintance' alongside Meatlug. "That's your 'luggage'?"

"It may not look like much, but that box has served me well ever since I started my travels," the Doctor nodded reassuringly at the blonde Viking as the two dragons came in to land on the Edge. "I've been through a lot with that box, and I've learned a great deal during my subsequent travels with it."

"You travel with that thing?" Ruffnut asked, looking at the blue box with a critical gaze.

"It's surprisingly mobile, if you know how to move it," the Doctor smiled, as Turlough and Fishlegs leapt off their dragons when the two Boulder-class dragons took up a hovering position above the ground, Alcatraz dropping the TARDIS on the edge of the platform near the dragons' 'barn' before they came into land themselves. "Turlough, Fishlegs, thank you for picking up the box."

"You're welcome," Fishlegs noted, looking slightly anxiously at the group.

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup looked at him curiously. "Is… something wrong?"

"Not exactly," Fishlegs replied, his expression growing increasingly awkward. "We… well…"

"We ran into another hunter ship on our way back, and it was going after this large green dragon," Turlough explained. "Fishlegs said that he recognised it; he called it… Scauldy?"

"Scauldy?" Ruffnut looked urgently at Turlough. "You saw Scauldy? And those hunters were after him? Is he-?"

"He's safe," Fishlegs assured the female twin with a warm yet anxious smile as she moved towards him. "Turlough and I managed to force the… hunters… to back off."

"How?" Hiccup asked, looking at Turlough with new curiosity. "That… flying thing… wasn't exactly-"

"We destroyed the ship's weapons," Turlough explained as he indicated the dragons. "Well, Fishlegs and I directed Meatlug and Alcatraz on how to damage their weapons and then Scauldy helped us knock the ship off-balance so that the hunters had to get away."

"They had weapons?" Astrid asked.

"Some kind of… precision plasma blast, I think?" Fishlegs said, his manner tentative. "I didn't see any dragons on it, and they probably didn't have any in there already if they were after Scauldy, but the way they were firing… maybe they found some kind of Terrible Terror that can attack using a Night Fury's blasts?"

"Could something like that even exist?" Astrid countered.

"It's… something to consider," Hiccup mused, even if his sceptical tone betrayed his words.

"You don't think that's possible?" Turlough asked.

"Dragons need to be able to produce gases and other chemicals if they're going to use fire; dragons the size of a Terror wouldn't be able to create enough to release that kind of blast," Hiccup explained. "Whatever that… flying thing… was capable of, it's something beyond anything we've ever fought before…"

"And you said Scauldy helped you fight it off?" Ruffnut grinned at Turlough and Fishlegs. "Good on him; least he's got things together after that busted wing."

"Sorry to interrupt, but for those of us who weren't there, who exactly is 'Scauldy'?" the Doctor took a step forward to raise a curious hand.

"He's a Scauldron we helped a year or so back after he had an accident," Hiccup explained. "Scauldrons are Tidal-class dragons like Sullivan, and we found Scauldy when he'd had a wing injured in a landslide on an island with a bunch of Changewings."

"Changewings?"

"They can turn invisible and spray acid," Tuffnut grinned. " _Really_ cool dragons-"

"Except when we're stuck with a trapped and injured dragon on an island that they've claimed as their territory," Astrid observed. "We had a bit of trouble getting the rocks off him before he dried out to a fatal extent, and then we had to bind his injured wing so that he could swim away; we only managed to do anything because he'd formed an attachment to Ruffnut that kept him calm enough to realise that we were trying to help him."

"Yeah," Ruffnut smiled. "Kinda sucked that we couldn't bring him back, but he was too big to keep around Berk; had to stick with sharing Barf and Belch with this guy."

"I see," the Doctor nodded, giving Ruffnut a grateful smile. "Well, that's… interesting."

"Is it a problem that we just drove that ship back?" Turlough looked at the Doctor in a pointed manner. "I was trying to think of this in terms of what you'd approve of and _not_ kill people."

"And I appreciate that," the Doctor nodded reassuringly at Turlough before he looked more solemnly around at the other Riders. "On the one hand, as Turlough implied, I fully approve of the fact that he and Fishlegs managed to find a way to force that ship back without destroying it, but on the other hand…"

"What?" Snotlout shook his head. "If you and Hiccup _agree_ that killing the other guy's crossing some kind of stupid line- whatever that means- what's the problem?"

"To be blunt, Snotlout, we have had two encounters with these new hunters in the last few days, and we still have little knowledge of who we're up against," the Doctor countered as he looked firmly at the shortest Rider. "So far we've had the advantage that, whoever these hunters are, they were probably expecting that they'd just have to deal with wild animals rather than any kind of coordinated defence."

"That's… actually a good point," Astrid said as she glanced over at Hiccup, thankfully ignoring the way the Doctor had essentially grouped himself and Turlough in with the other Riders. "I mean, dragons are intelligent, but only a few of the wild dragons have any real sense of tactics; we've mainly done well against even superior numbers because we're better coordinated."

"Good… point," Hiccup nodded thoughtfully. "I managed to outmanoeuvre that first hunter into a crash, and it sounds like Turlough and Fishlegs caught this next one off-guard, but how long will it take them to work out how to counter our own advantages?"

"Then we just take 'em down hard-!"

"Which only works if we know exactly where to hit them to stop them continuing this operation," Astrid cut in as she shot a brief glare at Snotlout before turning back to the Doctor. "So if we're looking for the hunters, what do you have in that box that might help us?"

"Unfortunately, I can't show you."

"What?" Tuffnut looked at the Doctor incredulously.

"I… am bound by certain oaths that prevent me from showing my gathered resources to just anyone," the Doctor explained with an apologetic shrug. "Turlough had to commit himself to studying exclusively under me to the exclusion of all else for an indefinite period of time before he could be granted access to my own resources; as much as I appreciate your help in training Sullivan at this time…"

"We get it," Hiccup nodded with a slightly disappointed expression. "I mean, so long as it's not anything… y'know, personally _against_ us…"

"Thank you for understanding," the Doctor smiled. "For what it's worth, I _will_ be able to take certain items out of my box and show you some of the details once we have a better idea what we're working with; I just can't let any of you see what's inside it right now."

"OK…" Hiccup said, looking thoughtfully at the Doctor for a moment before he nodded. "Well, even if you can't show _us_ what's in the box… I think it's time we give you an example of what's in the Eye."

"Hey, he just-!"

"Like he said, Snotlout, it's a cultural thing; if the Doctor _could_ share anything with us, I trust that he'd do it," the young Viking said, looking at his cousin with a frustrated roll of his eyes before he turned around to head for his hut, followed by the Doctor, Turlough, and the other Riders, even if Snotlout lagged behind as though in some gesture of protest. As they reached Hiccup's hut, the young Viking removed the Eye from its chest, checked the lenses, and passed it over to the Doctor. "OK, just hold the Eye in front of Toothless, and you'll see a few of the islands we've checked out so far."

Taking the Dragon's Eye from Hiccup, the Doctor glanced curiously at Toothless, although it took a nod from Hiccup for the Night Fury to open his mouth and generate the purple glow the Doctor needed. Turning to look at the image projected on the opposite wall, the Doctor's eyes widened in surprise at the images displayed.

"Gallifreyan?" he said in surprise, looking at the circular text in between a few basic dragon images. "This is in Gallifreyan?"

"You can read that?" Astrid looked at him in surprise.

"You told us that you've been studying this thing for months; it's not-!" Turlough began.

"But it… the writing it produced never looked like _that_ ," Fishlegs insisted, pointing at the new circular script.

"It didn't?" the Doctor looked at the large Viking curiously even as his main focus remained on the projection.

"I mean, the pictures look the same, but everything around it…" Fishlegs waved his hands in confusion. "We always got runes when we used the lenses; I've never even _seen_ that… are those circles actually _writing_?"

"They are," the Doctor stared solemnly at the wall as he held the Eye in place, even as Toothless shot a surprisingly quizzical look at the gathered humans. "It's the written language of my own people."

"Your tribe writes like that?" Tuffnut looked at the display in surprise, squinting as though trying to interpret it. "How does that work?"

"I will admit that it gets complicated," the Doctor conceded with a smile before he assumed a more serious expression. "But at least this proves something I've been speculating since I heard about this Eye."

"What?" Hiccup asked.

"You told us that you've been studying the information presented in the Eye for the last few months, correct?" the Doctor explained, waiting for Hiccup to nod before he continued. "This artefact must be of considerable age for nobody to have heard of it before you found it, but every time you visited an island recorded in it you found the same dragons as listed in the Eye unless something significant had happened to the island relatively recently, and it even refers to the dragons by the names you're familiar with for the most part?"

"Well, we need to make a few allowances for context, but… yeah, basically," Hiccup nodded.

"So what?" Snotlout shrugged. "So the dragons don't move around much-"

"No… he's right," Hiccup cut his cousin off, nodding thoughtfully. "I mean, we move around a lot based on factors like needing new material or new food, so why should the dragons have just… stayed put for this long? I mean, even the Deathsong was where the Eye said it should be once we found the lens that had the information about it, and you'd think a dragon that can eat other dragons would _need_ to move on fairly often so it doesn't just get attacked by everyone else…"

"Exactly," the Doctor nodded at Hiccup. "Essentially, these lenses aren't just crystals that have been specially treated in some way to respond to dragon fire; if I'm right, these lenses are made of some form of psychic mineral."

"Psychic mineral?" Tuffnut asked.

"Well, 'mineral' means 'rock', but I'm not-" Hiccup began.

"It's… complicated to explain, but I've actually encountered something similar," the Doctor said, half-lost in thought as he put the Eye down on the table and removed one of the lenses, holding it up to his eye to study it closely before he nodded. "Yes, as I thought; the crystals in these lenses are very similar to the Great Crystal."

"Great Crystal?" the Riders asked simultaneously.

"You mean… are we dealing with another Mara?" Turlough looked apprehensively at the Doctor as he put the lens back in the Eye.

"These lenses aren't that receptive, Turlough, but the basic principle is the same."

"Basic principle of what?" Ruffnut asked.

"A while ago, during my travels, I encountered a culture who had essentially sought to purge themselves of evil," the Doctor explained.

"Purge themselves of evil?" Astrid repeated sceptically. "How would that work?"

"In this case, it worked out very badly," the Doctor answered, grateful that even these Vikings weren't so advanced that they'd completely abandoned the idea of magic as an explanation for anything. "The evil they drew out of themselves manifested in the form of a large snake that could possess and control others to serve it, and sought nothing but destruction and chaos for its own sake. It was banished by its former servants, but it escaped to possess a… former apprentice of mine on a few other occasions, manifesting through a crystal similar to the crystals used for the lenses of the Eye."

"OK…" Hiccup nodded, looking at the Doctor with a new sense of uncertainty. "So… you think the lenses are like that?"

"Not in the sense that they have actual psychic powers in themselves, but in the sense that, in some way, these lenses can... update themselves as the dragons move around," the Doctor explained, still looking thoughtfully at the lenses. "I still don't recognise where these lenses came from, but I do believe I'm getting more of an idea of what we're dealing with…"


	12. Flying with Dragons

Flying through the air alongside Turlough, the Doctor briefly found himself regretting that the TARDIS was so quick to get around. He enjoyed how the old girl made it easy for him to get right to the heart of most situations and ensure that he could see the most interesting parts of a situation first, but there was something to be said for the idea of taking the time to watch what he was travelling through. At the moment, the two dragons were flying fairly close to the sea as they stretched their wings on their first solo training flight, Sullivan out of a preference for staying close to the sea while Alcatraz just seemed to be more comfortable flying low due to its weight, but for their first solo flight without supervision from another rider the Doctor felt they had made good progress.

Still, the Time Lord was aware that he was mainly doing well right now because he'd been fortunate enough to have Hiccup's insight while working with Sullivan. The young Viking might have spent years being isolated from his tribe, but once he found his niche he had clearly grown into it with relative ease, demonstrating a surprising ease with training dragons even when he admitted that he only knew anything about Sullivan and Alcatraz's species based on second-hand knowledge. The dragons had always been friendly, but with Hiccup's advice, the more time the Doctor and Turlough spent with them the more he came to appreciate how much he would have missed out on if he'd tried to train a dragon by himself.

Frankly, looking back at his past selves as Sullivan performed a loop-de-loop, the Doctor was grateful he'd met the Riders during his current body, as he doubted any of his predecessors would have been able to fully appreciate Hiccup's instruction like he was. His original self might have been willing to take instruction in exceptional circumstances, such as when Odoyle tutored him in magic on Avalon, but he would have found it hard to fully accept Hiccup as a teacher given the Viking's youth, he doubted that his second self would have been able to take the whole experience seriously enough to really follow advice, and his last two bodies would have been too busy trying to establish their own authority and give the impression that they knew more than they did to actually _listen_ to Hiccup.

It wasn't that his earlier selves would have _ignored_ Hiccup's advice completely, but the Doctor knew that his predecessors didn't like to admit that they didn't know something. His current body might be dismissed by foes like Control as 'the vulnerable one', but he preferred to think that he was just more willing to accept input from others, even if it meant that he could come across as indecisive or hesitant sometimes…

He just wished that he felt as certain of what he was doing right now as he would have felt in some of those past bodies. So far the Vikings had accepted his insight into how the Dragon Eye lenses apparently worked, but without any clear idea what species had created the Eyes he couldn't determine what the hunters might be after, or even if the hunters had anything in common with the Eye or this was all just a remarkable coincidence. He'd enjoyed training with Turlough to ride Sullivan and Alcatraz, and he had spent some time talking with Hiccup and Fishlegs about everything the Eyes had taught them about even the familiar dragons Berk had known already, but they all knew that their mysterious hunters were still a problem…

"Doctor?" Turlough looked at the Time Lord as Alcatraz flew up beside Sullivan. "Are you all right?"

"Just thinking," the Time Lord grinned back at his companion. "This has certainly been an exhilarating few days, hasn't it?"

"It's certainly… something, I'll give you that," Turlough said, trying not to shift too much on his new saddle, looking at Alcatraz with a tentative awe, a half-smile on his face that gave the Doctor the impression that his friend wasn't sure how far to express his current feelings. "I'm… I mean, I didn't exactly grow up with tales of dragons before I got to Earth, but I read a few things at Brendon, and now…"

His smile became a fuller grin as he turned his full attention to the dragon below him. "I mean, I know that we've flown in faster ships in the past, but this… flying on their backs, being out in the open…"

"It's one of those strange constants across the universe," the Doctor smiled, as Sullivan did a brief loop in the air around Alcatraz. "It's also one of the reasons that even TARDISes are somewhat alive; most machines may be faster than animals, but there's something reassuring about the idea of travelling with a living creature that cares about you and taking you to your destination, rather than travelling in a machine that can just be driven or programmed."

"…I know what you mean," Turlough said, reaching over to tentatively rub behind the large dragon's right horn. "I mean… to be blunt, I'm not sure I'd be willing to stay here on a full-time basis just to keep flying with him, but there's something special about Alcatraz here…"

"Yes, these are remarkable creatures, aren't they?" the Doctor grinned, Sullivan and Alcatraz letting out what sounded like a grateful rumble as they looped around a small island. "An entire genus of creatures with so many superficial similarities and so many subtle differences, responding so well to instruction when someone's given the opportunity to show that they care, each one showing a certain preference for particular riders…"

"They have a preference?"

"You've seen how each dragon has a certain bond to their own Riders, obviously?" the Doctor smiled over at his friend. "It's not just the ones we've met already, actually. I was talking with Hiccup about their tribe's history with dragons, and he mentioned that his own father bonded with his two dragons because the dragons recognised Hiccup's father as a protector like themselves, which gave human and dragon common ground that would allow them to work together."

"That makes sense," Turlough nodded, before his gaze shifted to Sullivan. "Well, I can understand how you might have formed a bond with Sullivan, but how did I end up being chosen by Alcatraz?"

"You're both too stubborn to give up when it's important."

"Really?" Turlough looked at the dragon with a new sense of curiosity, even as he tried to ignore how touched he was at the Doctor's positive description of himself.

"Alcatraz was still willing to fight and keep on trying even after he had been captured by these hunters for however long he spent in that cage; I'd call that a good sign of what he's capable of."

"Good point," Turlough smiled, nodding at his dragon before he looked at the Doctor. "So the twins and the Zippleback are obvious, Astrid and her Nadder are each powerful fighters, Snotlout and his dragon just hit things, Fishlegs and the Gronckle are large but affectionate characters… how does Hiccup fit with Toothless?"

"Small but powerful, and also exceptionally intelligent," the Doctor answered. "Toothless may not be the largest dragon here, but from what we've seen, I feel safe assuming that if any dragon here is the leader of this group, it's Toothless, for reasons that go beyond the fact that he's Hiccup's dragon."

"You really think he's that important?"

"Frankly, from what I've seen, Hiccup is just as exceptional as Toothless in his way; if he was born in another time, I have a feeling he'd be an excellent inventor."

"I'd say Hiccup's doing pretty well as he is," Turlough responded. "I mean, I appreciate that the history of Earth's technological development isn't my strong point, but I'm fairly sure that tail he created for his dragon is ahead of its time."

"Oh, I'm not denying he's done some impressive things for the time; I just have to wonder what he would be capable of if he had the opportunity to truly apply himself," the Doctor clarified. "Right now he's focusing his efforts on protecting the dragons and unlocking the secrets of the Dragon Eye; if he had the opportunity to devote more time to his inventions, who's to say what he could accomplish?"

"Is that… something we should be concerned about?" Turlough asked.

"Oh, probably not," the Doctor shrugged, even as the pained expression on his face made it clear that he regretted that assessment. "Even if Hiccup is going to become the chief of his village, he'll have too many wider responsibilities to really devote himself to any potential inventions, and he may not even have the resources to distribute his creations on a wider scale even if he creates anything truly significant…"

"Which is another reason to be concerned about the dragons?"

"Precisely," the Doctor nodded grimly. "I've always managed to get out of these problems in the past by essentially letting history take its course, but this isn't like stopping mankind getting its hands on alien technology for mass production; Hiccup might introduce some ideas ahead of their time, but I honestly can't see him developing weapons before mankind's ready for them or anything like that…"

"But then you bring the dragons into the equation and it becomes more complicated," Turlough finished.

"In every sense," the Doctor confirmed. "Not only would they make it easier for Hiccup to find the time to explore other ideas when he has such an obvious advantage over the other tribes, but once others start training them…"

"Do you have to be worried about that? I mean, the dragons are powerful, but if it's only Hiccup and the others who know how to train them, and I don't think they'd let some psychopath learn how to-"

"Once something's been done once, it becomes easier to do it again," the Doctor cut his companion off. "Hiccup may have been the first person to realise that dragons were trainable, but even if he's the best person at doing it right now, he's already taught the rest of his tribe how to at least win over their own dragons, and we have to assume their enemies are aware of at least some of their tricks. If people beyond these islands learn that dragons are real and trainable, how long would it take until someone starts using them for military purposes against people who don't have that knowledge? All it would take is a few dragon-riders in the right place, and all of history could be changed."

"And no way of knowing how it would turn out…" Turlough conceded, his mind grimly recalling the Doctor's concerns about the implications of Victorian space travel just a few weeks ago and almost a millennia in the future. "But what does that mean for _now_?"

"I'm not sure," the Doctor shook his head. "I obviously don't _want_ to have to take away the dragons just to preserve history, but then there's the question of these hunters…"

"You know, on that topic, you still haven't really answered yourself."

"Answered myself?" the Doctor repeated, looking at his companion with a curious smile. "What would I need to answer for myself?"

"Back when we were on the Edge, you said that you were getting some ideas about what we might be dealing with based on what you'd theorised about those lenses," Turlough observed. "You've spent so much time studying the information _on_ the lenses these last few days, but when you said that you had ideas, you were referring to the lenses themselves giving you ideas, weren't you?"

"…Potentially, anyway," the Doctor conceded after a few moments of silent flying, speaking up just as Turlough was about to repeat himself. "Do you remember what happened to us when we reached this area? Specifically, the signal that forced the TARDIS to materialise and was then detected by Kamelion?"

"You mean that… psychic signal?" the younger man said, looking at the Doctor with a new sense of apprehension. "You think it's connected to the lenses?"

"I still don't know precisely what kind of alien species we're dealing with here, but it can hardly be a coincidence that we picked up a psychic signal when we arrived here and found humans with access to psychic technology, even if the riders don't know how to use that part of it," the Doctor nodded in confirmation. "I'm not certain what species we're dealing with or why they're doing this, but I feel comfortable assuming that whoever these hunters are, they had some connection to the Dragon Eye, which reinforces the idea that they're here for the dragons."

"Which leaves us the question of how the two fit together?" Turlough asked.

"A good question, with more than a few possible answers…" the Doctor mused, before he shook his head and shrugged. "Well, if we're going to solve this, we should get back to the Edge and see what our new associates have to say."

"It's the best idea we've got at the moment," Turlough conceded, before he smiled thoughtfully at the Doctor. "Still, it's good to see you connect with someone like you."

"Like me?"

"Inventive, creative, a man of peace, always looking for the non-violent solution to a situation; what in that description doesn't sound like you _and_ Hiccup?"

"That's…" the Doctor paused, before he smiled over at Turlough. "That's actually a good point."

He looked down at Sullivan with a contemplative expression, before he smiled and patted the dragon on the side of the head. "And if we're going to solve this mystery, I can't think of anyone I'd rather be working with."

"It's funny," Turlough said, nodding thoughtfully as he smiled down at the dragon himself. "They're not conventional company… but I like this group as well."

The positive words were only slightly undermined by the grim edge in the Doctor and Turlough's eyes as they glanced at each other, both wondering if they would have to betray those new friends before this was all over…


	13. Old Friends Attack

"Hey, Tur, Doc; lookin' good!" Tuffnut grinned up as the two 'temporary' Riders came in to land at the Edge.

"We do our best," the Doctor smiled, patting Sullivan's neck as he got off the Tide Glider, who subsequently leapt off the ramp to go for a quick swim.

For all the questions Hiccup had about the history of their newest associates, he had to agree that they had made considerable progress in training their dragons considering that they had apparently believed the creatures didn't exist before they came here, and the dragons seemed to be happy with them as well. Alcatraz had taken to sleeping outside the Doctor's strange blue hut during the nights, and Hiccup got the impression that Sullivan only slept in the sea for a few hours each night because he had to stay hydrated even if he wanted to stay with the Doctor.

"And talking of 'doing your best'," Astrid cut in, looking critically at the Doctor, "do you have any more ideas about where we could find the hunters?"

"Astrid-" Hiccup began.

"Look, I know that we can trust him by now, but that doesn't change the fact that we've still got no idea what we're dealing with and he's the only person who's shown any sign that he knows what we're up against-"

"I have ideas, but that's not the same as-"

"You know all that stuff about 'psychic metal' and you expect us to believe that you don't have _any_ other ideas about how that ties in with these hunters?" Astrid shot him a cool glare.

"I repeat that I only have _theories_ ; if I knew anything for a fact, I'd tell you!" the Doctor protested. "I'm only even tentatively sure that the lenses and the hunters have anything to do with the signal-!"

"Hold on; 'signal'?" Astrid cut in, her gaze seemingly increasing in intensity as she glared at the Doctor. "What kind of signal?"

"That's… complicated," the Doctor said, the fair-haired man suddenly putting the riders in mind of Hiccup during the early days of the Dragon Academy when he was trying not to tell them about Toothless. "Let's just say that I'm… I have my means of knowing when events are taking place that will require my involvement in some way."

"You 'have your means'?" Astrid repeated, folding her arms and looking sceptically at the Time Lord. "And let me guess, just like we can't see inside your box, you can't tell us what those 'means' are?"

"Astrid, if the Doctor doesn't want to share things-"

"You can just _accept_ that?" Astrid glared over at Hiccup. "We're dealing with an enemy we know nothing about, and this guy just… _shows_ up and acts like-"

"I appreciate that I'm asking you to take a lot on trust-"

A loud screeching roar suddenly filled the air as the eight riders found themselves thrown to the ground, accompanied by pained snarls from the seven dragons gathered outside the hut.

"Wh… what is-?" the Doctor looked urgently at the other Riders as the roar died down.

" _Thunderdrums_!" the Vikings yelled in horror, just as an entire wall of the hut seemed to collapse in on itself as it was buffeted by a more intense roar. Hands pressed to his ears as he lay on the floor, the Doctor turned to look at the fallen wall and found himself looking at four large dragons in vividly different colours, their large mouths wide open to generate a sound wave so powerful the Doctor could actually see it. The largest dragon was a deep shade of blue that reminded him of the TARDIS, apart from its white belly and lighter blue 'spots' all over its body, and one of the smaller dragons was a similar colour, but the other two were vivid shades of teal and purple.

"Do you know these things?" Turlough called over to the other riders, hands practically pinned to his ears as he looked around the floor. The riders simply lay in silence in a similar state, hands trying to shield their ears from the attack, before the four attacking dragons moved away from the hut to attack the rest of the island. As the various riders got to their feet, Astrid and Fishlegs ran out to check the dragons, all of whom were lying outside the hut with dazed expressions.

"Are they all right?" the Doctor asked, crouching beside Sullivan and noting the dragon's rolling eyes.

"Loud noises can disorientate dragons," Fishlegs explained as Meatlug tried to stand up before collapsing again. "Back when we fought them, just hitting a shield with your weapon could be enough to give a Viking an advantage."

"And these dragons attack with sound rather than fire?" the Doctor looked over at the four attacking dragons with an expression that somehow mixed apprehension with awe.

"Yeah, we had some real trouble with the first- hold on…" Snotlout began, looking with new intensity at the largest of the four attacking dragons as its latest attack knocked the metal 'S' off the front of his hut. "Is that-?"

" _Thornado_?" Hiccup finished, staring incredulously at the largest dragon.

"And Bing, Bam and Boom?" Tuffnut noted, gaze shifting rapidly between the three smaller figures darting around the Edge.

"You know those things?" Turlough looked at the riders in surprise. "I mean, these specific dragons?"

"Thornado more than the others, but yeah," Hiccup said. "He used to be Dad's dragon."

"Your father _rode_ that thing?"

"For over a year, before we found the other three and Dad had to let Thornado go to take care of them because they'd have just trashed the village if they stayed with us," Hiccup explained, even as he studied the attacking Thunderdrums with narrowed eyes. "But that doesn't explain why they're doing this…"

"Yeah!" Tuffnut said firmly. "Bing, Bam and Boom were tricky to keep under control, but they weren't _bad_!"

"Whatever," Snotlout said, hurrying over to jump onto Hookfang's saddle. "Worry about the 'why' later; right now we just have some ass to kick!"

Hiccup didn't even have time to protest before his cousin was in the air and flying towards the four dragons. He had only just placed a hand on Toothless's saddle when Hookfang flared up and sent the four Thunderdrums briefly rearing back with a pained roar-

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" Ruffnut looked at the Doctor in confusion.

"The thing on the back of their heads?" Astrid glanced at the Doctor with a more thoughtful smile. "Yeah, that's new."

"Yeah…" Hiccup nodded as he noticed what the Doctor and Astrid had seen; he couldn't say what it was, but there was definitely something metallic on the four dragons, between their eyes and the edges of their mouths, that he hadn't seen before. "Maybe that's-?"

"What's provoking this attack?" the Doctor finished for Hiccup as Hookfang was knocked back by the four dragons' initial counter-attack, sending him and Snotlout crashing to the ground. "If you really do know these dragons, it's certainly likely something else is controlling them."

"Hold on; are you saying that if we… destroy those things on their heads, we'd stop the Thunderdrums attacking?" Fishlegs asked uncertainly. "But how does-?"

"Maybe we give it a shot and _then_ worry about how that works?" Turlough asked, practically scrambling onto Alcatraz's back as the Snafflefang glared at the attacking Thunderdrums.

"Good call," Hiccup said, as the other Riders followed Turlough's cue. "OK, if those metal things are the problem, Astrid, we need to try and get them off; the rest of you keep the Thunderdrums distracted, but don't do anything serious."

"Check-!" Tuffnut began before another loud roar was followed by a dragon with a thick orange body and large wingspan that seemed at odds with its bizarrely thin neck and bone-white head, firing a burst of flame at the huts.

" _Torch_?!" Hiccup and Tuffnut yelled.

"Another familiar face?" Turlough asked in exasperation.

"On the bright side, at least this one just breaths fire," the Doctor noted.

"That's a _good thing_?" Fishlegs yelled incredulously even as he climbed onto Meatlug.

"It means that Sullivan and I can focus on bringing him down and shutting down his control device while you all deal with the Thunderdrums," the Doctor smiled, patting his dragon on the side of its head before he turned his focus on the larger dragon. "Just give us time, and I think we can do this…"

With those words, the Doctor and Sullivan leapt into the air towards Torch, the Doctor's dragon firing a burst of hot water at the other dragon's head. The apparently named 'Torch' dodged the worst of the blast, but as the Doctor glanced over, he smiled as he watched Astrid and Stormfly launch a series of spine-shots at the attacking dragons. The first couple of spines struck the purple dragon and sent it falling to the ground, one spine embedded in the metal device on the side of its head.

Satisfied that his allies were doing well, the Doctor turned his attention back to Torch, who was currently spinning on the ground to generate a flaming tornado. Before the resulting inferno could become too powerful, Sullivan fired a blast of scalding water down onto the other dragon, dousing the flames before they could spread too far. Roaring in response, Torch lunged towards the Doctor and Sullivan, but another blast of water from Sullivan enveloped Torch's head just before he could make contact, triggering a spark of electricity from the control device on the side of his head.

Not stopping to think about what he was doing, the Doctor jumped from Sullivan and grabbed the device as he fell, sliding down Torch's back as the dragon let out a pained roar before he fell to the ground behind the Edge. Turning around as he fell, the Doctor was able to hold on to the dragon and rely on its body to cushion the worst of the crash, even if he still felt unsteady on his legs when he got up. Sullivan flew down beside him to let out an anxious rumble, but the Doctor smiled gratefully at his new friend before he slipped the device into his pocket and slung himself back into his saddle, the two lifting off to fly back towards the main buildings of the Edge.

As he returned to the main fight, the Doctor noted that the Riders were coping with the challenge of the three Thunderdrums easily enough; even Turlough was managing to keep ahead of their attacks, even if Alcatraz seemed to be staying close to Meatlug as though taking his cues from the other Rock-class dragon. The Thunderdrums were obviously powerful, but considering that Thornado had once been part of life on Berk, he would have expected the other dragon to be better coordinated than that, considering how efficiently the trained dragons moved compared to what he'd seen of wild dragons so far. The Thunderdrums were able to avoid most attacks, but they still took a few close plasma blasts that he felt the Riders' dragons could have avoided in similar circumstances.

The Doctor was about to dive in to assist the fight when the three Tunderdrums all turned towards the Riders at once, only for Hookfang to flare his body up in a brilliant display of flame. As the three dragons were sent reeling back with pained roars, Barf and Belch moved in to attack the small blue one, Belch tearing the metal device off with its teeth. The teal dragon tried to protect its 'sibling', only for Toothless to launch a thin but precise blast of purple plasma that struck the teal dragon's control device and sent it to the ground. As Toothless flew down to anxiously examine the smaller dragon, Thornado charged towards him, only for Meatlug to rapidly descend from above just in time to literally land on top of the Thunderdrum, a pleased smile on her wide face even as Fishlegs rolled off his dragon and grabbed the metal device from the side of Thornado's head. The large Viking let out a brief pained yelp as the metal device sparked in his fingers, but Thornado let out a similarly pained roar before he hit the ground himself, looking weakly but calmly at the last small dragon the group had 'disarmed'.

"Get down, but be careful!" Hiccup called out to the other Riders, even as he got off Toothless to examine the teal dragon more closely. As the other Riders split up to examine the downed dragons, the Doctor and Sullivan landed beside Hiccup, who looked at them with a brief smile.

"Glad you're OK; got worried when you cut out to face Torch on your own…" The one-legged young man's voice trailed off as he took in the absence of the aforementioned dragon. "Where's Torch?"

"Unconscious back there, but he should make a full recovery; Sullivan just kept him wet until I could get this off him," the Doctor explained, briefly removing the signal device from his pocket but slipping it back before it could attract further questions as he looked around the Edge for the other Riders. "How about the rest of you?"

"I think Belch ate our one," Tuffnut shrugged.

"Here's one," Astrid added, displaying the device she and Stormfly had impaled in their first attack.

"And here's Thornado's," Fishlegs put in, handing his own to the Doctor and Hiccup.

"OK," Hiccup looked tentatively at the small metal objects in his hands before he looked back at the Doctor. "I don't suppose you have any idea what these things actually?"

"I have a few ideas," the Doctor nodded as he took one of the devices from Hiccup, studying it thoughtfully before he looked back at the other Riders. "These dragons are going to need some time to recover, but in the meantime, I have a few ideas I'd like to test in my box…"


	14. Tracking the Hunters

When he walked out of the TARDIS, the Doctor wasn't surprised to see the Riders waiting impatiently for him in the Edge's main 'conference hall', Turlough standing awkwardly off to the side. The group's dragons were all waiting in the stables, along with the still-recovering Thunderdrums and Torch (whose species was apparently called the 'Typhoomerang', even if the Doctor recognised that was probably just the TARDIS translating the term for his benefit), which left the Doctor free to consider what he was able to tell the Riders.

"So," Astrid said, looking at the Doctor with a particularly probing stare, "what did those metal things have to do with the dragons attacking us?"

"It's… well, to put it simply, these things were controlling those dragons," the Doctor explained.

"Controlling them?" Fishlegs repeated. "You mentioned that you had the idea of something like that, but… how does that even work?"

"And what made you think that?" Hiccup asked. "Beyond the fact that they were attacking us, I mean?"

"If you were acquainted with these dragons, I assumed that they had received at least some training from you before they returned to the wild," the Doctor explained. "Based on what I've seen your dragons achieve even when you aren't riding them, I concluded that these dragons should be capable of more than what they were demonstrating, so it didn't seem like much of a stretch to deduce that they were under some kind of influence."

"Influence?" Snotlout asked.

"As in… like how the dragons were originally controlled?" Astrid looked tentatively at the Time Lord, as though willing to genuinely trust him for a change.

"Your dragons were controlled?" Turlough asked.

"By the Red Death."

"That was… the dragon who was originally forcing all the other dragons to get food for itself?" the Doctor asked, looking curiously at the young woman. "You're saying that it could actually control them?"

"The smaller dragons kept on bringing it food even if it literally ate them if they didn't bring it enough," Astrid explained. "Considering that the thing looked like it was basically stuck inside the mountain where it lived before we attacked it, the other dragons could have just abandoned it and let it starve it to death; I don't know how it was doing it, but I think that makes it clear it was controlling them _somehow_."

"Fair point," the Doctor nodded at Astrid before he turned to address the group as a whole. "In any case, with that to set a precedent, it doesn't seem impossible to assume that these new hunters we're dealing with were able to take control of these dragons in some way and send them against us."

"You're saying someone just… _took control_ of Thornado and the others?" Ruffnut asked incredulously. "Like the Red Death?"

"It's hardly a stretch of the imagination," the Doctor observed. "After all, you all trained the dragons first, and I can think of a few large creatures I've managed to tame on limited experience with their species during my travels; with the right resources, it's not impossible to assume an experienced individual may be able to force their cooperation."

"Stormfly would _never_ -"

"And I'm certainly not thinking these dragons did any of this willingly," the Doctor cut Astrid off as he looked around at the other Riders. "I'm just observing that the possibility is out there."

"OK…" Hiccup nodded tentatively. "I'll go with that for the moment… but I still don't see how this ties into those… _things_ on the dragons…"

"Think of them as… well, you use those horns as a warning, I assume?" The Doctor indicated a large horn on top of one of the outer buildings of the Edge.

"Yeah…"

"These devices essentially allow someone to ensure that the dragons can hear the sounds from… well, more advanced horns."

"More advanced?" Hiccup asked.

"That would take too long to explain right now," the Doctor waved an awkward hand. "What's important to this current conversation is that I was able to use the devices we retrieved from the fallen dragons to work out our likely next move."

"Which is?" Tuffnut asked.

"Well, obviously we don't have any means of tracing it at the moment, but it occurred to me that the other hunters must have some means of following the tracking signals of their own equipment, otherwise there would have been no way for that ship to follow Hiccup the day Turlough and I came to the Edge in the first place," the Doctor explained as he looked around the group. "Once the dragons are awake, if they can help us find the hunter ship that sent them after us, it might be possible to use that ship to work out where it came from."

"You mean… we study its charts and trace its route back to the source?" Hiccup asked.

"That's… actually a pretty good analogy," Turlough nodded in approval at the young man.

"Right," Hiccup nodded as he looked around the room. "Too bad we don't have time to get Dad here, but Tuff and I each trained Torch…"

* * *

As the Riders flew after Torch and the Thunderdrums, Hiccup, Astrid and Snotlout leading the way while Fishlegs and the twins followed the Doctor and Turlough, the Time Lord had to admit that he was impressed at the young Vikings' abilities to tame the dragons. He knew better than most that stereotypes were a foolish thing to rely on in most cases, but it was still surprising to see traditional warriors such as Vikings be so skilled at calming dangerous animals. Thornado and his 'adopted children' had each responded well to the young Riders' efforts to calm them down after they woke up, and Torch had appeared very receptive to Tuffnut and Hiccup's efforts to approach him. It had taken them some time to properly express the situation to the dragon, but as far as the two riders could determine, Torch understood their interest in finding whoever had attacked the other dragons and was willing to lead them to it.  
  
At this point, the more the Doctor saw of how the Riders had bonded with their dragons, the more uncertain he felt about what his final decision would be when the time came for him to make a choice.  
  
It had been comparatively more straightforward to make a decision when dealing with the British trip to the moon once Boyes-Dennison had died and the possibility of the Phiadorians staying on Earth had been taken off the board, especially when Stanton's issues made the potential class issues of the current situation clear, but so far he wasn't seeing a clear negative to the dragons remaining with the Vikings. There was obviously a risk of the wrong people on Earth learning how to train the dragons and using them as weapons, but so far he hadn't seen anything to suggest that it was easy to _force_ dragons to obey more brutal riders, to say nothing of his current theory that the dragons were just native to this particular archipelago.  
  
Still, whether or not the dragons were contained to this environment and how that would affect the Doctor's long-term concerns, it didn't change the core facts of the current situation; if aliens were after dragons at this stage in Earth's history, they'd gain access to a lethal species of virtual living weapons that would be difficult for most races to oppose. The dragons might not be much use in space combat, but during battles on planets an aerial advantage would be a decisive edge for most armed forces, even if the dragons didn't possess long-range 'weapons' such as their flames and spikes.  
  
 _Let the dragons stay on Earth and risk local history, or let them be taken offworld and potentially threaten other planets; I just hope it doesn't come down to that kind of choice_ …  
  
The Doctor's thoughts were cut short when he saw a large metal form on the corner of an island in the distance, which he immediately compared to the description Hiccup had provided of the ship he'd fought off previously. The wings and the control cabin both bore a resemblance to his initial description, and the red colour looked distinctive, but the Doctor was fairly sure that the ship Hiccup had encountered had been described as being a lot thinner than the 'fat' ship in front of them, as well as this one having much larger wings. The Doctor guessed that this was intended to be the equivalent of a troop carrier, either holding more of the hunters or intended to carry the captured dragons away.  
  
As the dragons drew closer, the ship rose up from its position on the ground and turned to face the dragons, whether intending to catch them or with the goal of attacking the Riders, but in either case the Doctor doubted their intentions were benign.  
  
"Oh Thor," Fishlegs practically squeaked at the sight.  
  
"Is that-?" Astrid asked.  
  
"Another one of those… flying ships of these hunters, yeah," Hiccup nodded, before he looked back at his friends and pointed at the approaching ship. "Hit it hard, guys!"  
  
Watching the Riders, the Doctor had to concede that he was impressed. They had only coordinated the basic aspects of a plan for the upcoming fight, and the very concept of flying vehicles rather than dragons had been a stretch even for Sinclair and the other expeditions, but as soon as Hiccup gave the order, the Thunderdrums let out powerful roars that struck the enemy ship with such force that it was temporarily thrown out of its existing flight path.  
  
The attacking ship soon regained its original trajectory, but by that point Stormfly and Hookfang had unleashed their own powerful blasts of fire at either end of the ship's wings, melting the points that the Doctor tentatively identified as some kind of gun before the pilot could fire at the Riders and their dragons. With the ship now defenceless, Barf and Belch flew into position above the ship and released a large cloud of gas, the subsequent explosion as the two-headed dragon triggered the spark forcing the ship down a few feet and leaving distinctive cracks on its back. Toothless flew past the other dragons to launch a plasma blast at the same cracks, enlarging the damage and forcing the ship further down.  
  
With the ship slowed and battered, Meatlug and Alcatraz flew over to 'land' on the wings, launching a quick set of fireballs that left a large hole in the back, which the two dragons tore at with their teeth before kicking themselves upwards away from the ship. As the ship was sent into a downward spiral towards the ground, the Doctor flew over to fire a blast of water at the hole from Sullivan, the steam from the blast affirming that the molten metal was now being cooled down before the ship hit the island below it.  
  
"Excellent work," the Doctor grinned over at the assembled Riders. "A neat coordination of our respective abilities, and we put that ship down with minimum force."  
  
"Ship?" Snotlout repeated. "That thing's a _ship_?"  
  
"The term works," Hiccup shrugged, before he studied the fallen vehicle and nodded. "OK, everyone land on that thing's back and then we're going in; if these hunters are in here, it's time we had a talk."  
  
"Oh yeah," Tuffnut nodded with an eager grin. With that, the group flew in to land around the ship, the wild dragons settling in around the riders' dragons as the Doctor and Turlough joined the riders in climbing over the fallen ship and into the hole in the roof. Discreetly taking up position at the head of the group, the Doctor led the way along the interior corridor, noting a few small hatches on either side that he assumed led down to whatever 'cages' they were using to keep the dragons contained.  
  
Reaching the end of the corridor, the Doctor opened the door into what he was fairly sure was the control area, and smiled in relief when he observed that at least this area didn't seem as high-tech as some of the control rooms he had encountered in the past. There were a few levers on either side and a 'steering wheel' at the front, behind the viewing screen at the front, which could at least provide technical references that Hiccup and the other Vikings may understand. That said, the figure at the control chair, clutching at his chest as though he'd taken a blow during the attack, was so clearly an alien that it went far beyond any conventional explanation the Doctor might improvise for the other Riders.  
  
Taking in the apparent pilot of this ship, the Doctor couldn't blame the Dragon Riders for being shocked at the figure's appearance, as even he was surprised at just how alien the hunter actually was. The scaled skin had almost been expected, as the interest in dragons made it likely that he was dealing with a reptilian species, and the domed head fit with his previous observations of the similarities between the attacking ships and Draconian vessels, although the Doctor noted that the head was slightly shorter than the Draconians he had encountered in the past. However, in contrast to the Draconians' green scales, this individual had pale, almost white scales/skin, a series of small spines on the chin as opposed to the beards of male Draconians, and two fair-sized tusks on either side of the man's mouth, the last doubtless contributing to the man's wider head.  
  
"Oh my Thor and Odin!" Snotlout practically screamed, to the point that he leapt onto Fishleg's shoulders as the group all stared in shock at the apparent hunter.  
  
"Wh-what _are_ you?" Hiccup said, struggling to hold on to his own self-control as he stared at this strange figure.  
  
"I am… Piervin… of the Drationa," the individual said, looking between the Riders with a cautious stare.  
  
"The Drationa?" Turlough looked over at the Doctor. "Have you heard of them?"  
  
"Not directly…" the Doctor affirmed, before he looked back at the hunter, ignoring the surprised stares he was attracting from the other Riders. "Can I assume you have something in common with the Draconians?"  
  
"Our… system siblings…" the Drationa affirmed, looking around the Riders with a slight smile. "And I see… you have found… our creatures…"  
  
"Your creatures?" Fishlegs repeated anxiously.  
  
"I believe… you call them… dragons?" Piervin said, smiling slightly as he indicated the creatures in question. "We… created them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To confirm, the Drationa are completely original creations, although they are intended to resemble the Draconians (compare it to how the Absorbaloff was meant to come from the 'sister' planet to the Slitheen homeworld); may I assume that the readers recognise what dragon the Drationa created to resemble themselves?


	15. The True History of Dragons

"You… you _what_?" Hiccup looked incredulously at the _thing_ that had introduced itself as Piervin.

"We… created… the dragons," Piervin said, smiling slightly at Hiccup despite the obvious pain of his injury.

"You _created_ dragons?" Astrid looked at Piervin in contempt. "If you're trying to claim you're some kind of… I don't know what you are-!"

"Maybe we could explore what these people are doing here before we start questioning if their claims are true or not?" the Doctor cut in, gaze fixed coolly on Piervin. "To begin with, if your people created the dragons, what are they doing on this planet?"

"The work began… at home… but we let them grow… in secret," Piervin explained.

"And where is 'home'?" the Doctor asked. "Can I assume somewhere in the vicinity of Draconia?"

"You know… our brethren?" Piervin looked at the Doctor with a new sense of interest.

"Brethren?" Snotlout repeated incredulously. "There are _more_ like you?"

"Similar, but the Draconians are green and don't have tusks," the Doctor cut in, before he looked more coolly at Piervin. "Which still doesn't explain what you're doing here; Draconia is some considerable distance from here, and the last time I checked you didn't have the resources to travel that far yet?"

"We found… another way," Piervin said. "A ship… left on our world… by some past attack…"

"Ah," Turlough nodded as he looked over at the Doctor. "Just like with Lord Jack and the… Delirium, right?"

"Drelleren, but yes," the Doctor nodded at Turlough before he turned back to Piervin. "That only explains how you came here; it doesn't explain why?"

"With material… from the ship… we learned the secrets… of genetic engineering," Piervin explained; the Doctor wasn't sure if Piervin was genuinely getting stronger or if he was just coping with his injuries. "We created new species… formed the ultimate… in biological weapons…"

"The dragons?" the Doctor looked at Piervin with cautious intrigue. "Impressive…"

"And then you left them here?" Turlough looked suspiciously at Piervin. "Why?"

"Keep them secret…" Piervin smiled. "Weed out weaknesses… let them grow stronger…"

"I see," the Doctor nodded. "I take it the ship you found also gave you the means of coming here?"

"It was… exceptionally fast," Piervin nodded. "These vessels… short-range… but serve their purpose…"

"Which is why you're the only ones here, correct?" the Doctor put in, looking at the Drationa with a thoughtful smile. "The Draconians are an honourable race who would hardly countenance using technology taken from their enemies, and would certainly not do anything to endanger the innocent like this."

"All that matters… is our own victory," Piervin said. "We had the technology… we had the ability… who cares how we get there?"

"Everyone," the Doctor said. "There is a reason most advanced cultures conceal their full knowledge from the races they encounter; everyone must find their own path, or who knows what will happen?"

"Can we get back to the part where these people _created_ dragons?" Fishlegs cut in, waving his hands desperately. "You can't mean-"

"It changes nothing," the Doctor cut him off, even as Piervin smirked at the group of Vikings.

"But- I mean, they _created_ dragons-!"

"Let me ask you something, Fishlegs," the Doctor looked at the large Viking. "Would you consider your ancestors stupid because they never tried to train dragons themselves?"

"Well… no, I guess," Fishlegs said, even as he looked at the Doctor uncertainly. "I mean, they didn't even know training them was an _option_ before Hiccup spent time with Toothless…"

"Exactly," the Doctor smiled at him. "Your ancestors weren't stupid; they were just ignorant of the fact that there was an alternative way to deal with the dragons beyond 'kill them all'. All you needed was an opportunity to try something new, and you've made great leaps since then-"

"But… this isn't just 'not trying to train dragons', this is… _creating_ dragons!" Hiccup cut in, looking desperately at the Doctor as he waved a hand at Piervin. "How can we even-?"

"How can you forge metal?"

"What?" Hiccup looked at the Doctor in confusion.

"I'm not asking you to give me a complete breakdown of the process, but you are aware that your ancestors didn't just start hitting at rocks one day and come up with metal overnight," the Doctor explained, before he turned to address the rest of the group. "It took time for your people to develop the forging techniques used in Berk until they had reached the level that you're capable of now, and from what I've seen of your abilities and resources, Hiccup alone has come up with some interesting advances since he started working as a blacksmith, correct?"

"Yeah…" Fishlegs nodded tentatively.

"What's your point?" Snotlout asked, an edgy expression on his face that suggested he wasn't sure how to feel about this.

"My point is that just because the Drationa are capable of something that you can't do doesn't mean that they're smarter than you; it simply means that they've had more time to find new ways to do things."

"When they can _create_ dragons?" Tuffnut said incredulously.

"Which, when you get down to it, is just an extension of forging metal."

"It is?" Astrid looked at him uncertainly. "Making metal is the same as making _living creatures_?"

"This is… a bit complicated to explain to you, but bear with me," the Doctor continued. "You've obviously seen how children share certain similarities with their parents; similar eye and hair colour, similar builds, that kind of thing?"

"Yes…" Ruffnut nodded.

"What does that have to do with this?" Astrid asked.

"Well," the Doctor continued, "my people… we believe that there is a… that our bodies, within our very blood and bone, contain 'instructions' for how they should look; whether we're strong, smart, fast, large, anything along those lines."

"Like a… recipe?" Astrid asked tentatively. "There are _recipes_ for making people?"

"As good an analogy as anything," the Doctor nodded at the young woman. "Anyway, based on this philosophy, children contain a mixture of the recipes of their parents; my people call this recipe 'DNA' for reasons that are… well, it's complicated to explain where that name came from, so let's not get into that."

"OK, so how does the whole 'making dragons' thing relate to all this stuff?" Snotlout asked.

"Well, children are basically a combination of DNA from their parents, which is why children look like a mixture of their parents as I discussed earlier," the Doctor continued. "Assuming that the Drationa are telling the truth when they claim that they created the dragons, they likely used what my people would call 'genetic engineering'; just as you can mix samples of different rocks and minerals to create different kinds of metal, the Drationa must have taken DNA samples from various animals and brought them together to create dragons."

"Does that mean they got different animal to mate-?" Tuffnut began.

" _No_ ," the Doctor interrupted, the young man looking at the Viking teen with such intensity that Turlough could swear he wasn't the only one suddenly aware of the Doctor's true age. "They likely took samples of different animals and were able to… mix them together to produce the dragons."

"Right…" Hiccup said tentatively. "And that's… possible?"

"With time and experience, yes," the Doctor nodded. "It would require a greater knowledge of genetics and technology than anything you're capable of at the moment, but as I explained, the basic concept is relatively simple."

"OK," Hiccup said, shaking his head and sitting back with a frustrated sigh. "Well, it's official; we're screwed."

"Hey!" Astrid yelled, reaching over to slap Hiccup on the back of his head.

" _Hey_ ," Hiccup glared back at Astrid in protest. "I'm not exactly fond of admitting it, but what are we meant to do to stop people who are so far ahead of us that they _created_ the dragons in the first place?"

"By focusing on what you can do that they can't," the Doctor interjected.

"Like what?" Hiccup looked bitterly back at the Doctor.

"Like train them, for a start."

"Excuse me?" Ruffnut said.

"The Doctor's right," Turlough nodded. "You've all taught the Doctor and I how to train Sullivan and Alcatraz when we've only been working with you for the last week or so, but these people claim to have created dragons and yet they're using those… ear things to control them where you've accomplished so much more through more simple methods."

"So?" Tuffnut asked.

"No, I get it," Astrid nodded. "The Doctor's got a point; Hiccup only needed to create Toothless's tail because he was injured, and we've been able to bond with our dragons because we took the time to connect, but these people… they don't _care_ enough to try."

"We are their _creators_ -!" Piervin began, the being's former wounded confidence shifting to indignation.

"Which just means that you know a few details that we don't," Hiccup cut him off, looking at the mysterious being with new intensity. "The Doctor's right; you may have made them, but you left them here for years and only just came to try and take them for yourself; we actually took the time and effort to _bond_ with our dragons, not just try and force them to help us. They're just tools to you, but they're _friends_ to us, and that's something you could never understand."

"We will claim-" Piervin began, before Snotlout walked up to punch the creature in the face, the Viking jumping back to clutch his hand as Piervin reeled back with a distinctive crack on his left tusk.

"OK," Snotlout looked back at the others, "I get that he's probably part of some race of geniuses, but _nobody_ talks about taking Hookfang away from me and gets away with it!"

"Snotlout-" the Doctor began.

"That works," Turlough cut him off.

"Turlough-" the Doctor turned to glare at his friend.

"Look, I think we can both agree that Piervin here probably isn't anything more than a grunt in terms of whatever larger group we're dealing with here?" Turlough said as he looked urgently at the Doctor. "I also think it's unlikely he knows anything more than the key details of what he's doing here now, so maybe we should just focus on finding where their main ship is located and track them down before they do anything more serious?"

"And how do we do that?" Tuffnut asked. "Snot just knocked our prisoner out, remember?"

"Which doesn't stop me checking these," the Doctor said, his expression becoming contemplative as he moved past the unconscious Piervin to examine the ship's control panels, discreetly flicking a couple of switches to bring up display screens without letting the Riders see what he was up to. "Yes, I think I can find something here… just give me a few moments, please?"

"What?" Ruffnut asked, before Turlough walked over to place a firm hand on the twins' shoulders and lead them out of the control area of the ship. After receiving a pointed stare from the Doctor, Hiccup and Fishlegs nodded in understanding and led Astrid and Snotlout after the others, before the door was closed behind them.

"OK, what's that all about?" Snotlout looked over at the other Riders and Turlough. "We're just… leaving that guy there?"

"The Doctor's going to… well, he's trying to find this ship's personal records," Turlough explained, crossing his fingers behind his back. "It's just that… well, like he just said, there are risks in letting you learn too much about certain things before you're ready for them…"

"Looking at this ship's logbook could be 'dangerous'?" Astrid looked sceptically at Turlough. "He's already told us about how these guys can _create_ dragons-"

"There's a difference between explaining the theory and trying to… well, it's complicated," Turlough said. "I'd try and explain more, but that would be-"

"I know where the main ship is," the Doctor suddenly cut in, walking out of the door with a smile as he looked around the room. "We just need some way to tie Piervin up here so he can't get on ahead and warn them…"

"Well then," Astrid said, drawing her axe and hitting a hatch in the wall, from which she pulled out more of the netting that had originally trapped Sullivan, "good thing we're on a trapper's ship then, isn't it?"

It was a small moment, but the fact that Astrid was showing any kind of support for the Doctor was enough to prompt a grateful smile from the Time Lord; with the final confrontation imminent, this was no time for an argument.


	16. The Three Big Dragons

Actually finding the coordinates for the Drationas' ship had been relatively easy, once the Doctor started looking; when he didn't have to worry about appearing excessively knowledgeable about the technology he was dealing with, the computers were comparatively simple to access. A brief search were all that he needed to find a record of the ship's recent travel history and track down where it had come from, and then he just needed a few moments to work out a suitable route from here to there that he could memorise.

Even with his lack of familiarity with dragon travel and these islands, the route to the mothership had been easy enough to retrace, but he was still anxious about what would happen when they actually reached their 'destination'. Assuming that they could drive off the Drationan forces, so far he had managed to focus on the goal of keeping the dragons safe, but what would he do when the time came to confront these hunters directly?

He knew for a fact that the dragons didn't exist on Earth in the future, but did that mean that he was obligated to let the Drationa take them from the archipelago now? Apart from anything else, the Drationa were clearly intending to abuse the dragons if the control devices they'd used so far were any example, whereas the Viking teens were willing to work _with_ the dragons and treat them as friends rather than things…

 _I risk history on the one hand, but I'd basically be condoning animal cruelty if I do nothing_ …

Still, after studying the route in the ship's cabin, he at least had a ready-made 'excuse' for leading the way to their current destination that didn't rely on him explaining how he found the way. Sullivan wasn't the fastest dragon, but he was fast enough that he could set a decent enough pace to satisfy the more impatient riders like the twins, and it gave the Doctor a little more time to think in private by claiming that he needed to concentrate.

When the island that had been marked as the Drationans' main base of operations came into view, it didn't take long for the Doctor to identify the alien ship they were looking for. The island itself fit the pattern of islands he'd seen so far, being a basic formation of grass and rocks, but the shining metal of the ship stood out from the island as a whole. Unlike the reddish metal of the fighters they'd seen so far, the larger ship put the Doctor in mind of an unconventional amalgamation of other spaceships he'd seen over the centuries. He was reminded of a Dalek saucer with a long, thick pole at one end, which he guessed was intended to serve as the ship's engines. There were hatches spread out along the pole that he speculated would serve as cages for the captured dragons, along with a longer hatch at the front saucer end that looked like it could be the shuttlebay equivalent for the fighters the Riders had encountered already.

"OK…" Hiccup said, studying the ship below them for a moment before he nodded. "We'll go in to take a quick sweep and see what that… ship… has in the way of defences; Doctor, Fishlegs, Turlough, stay up here and keep an eye out for anything, OK?"

"Understood," Fishlegs said, Meatlug hovering in the air alongside Alcatraz and Sullivan as the other dragons dived down towards the ground. Fishlegs and Meatlug moved over to take up a more tentative position further above the ship as the other dragons flew around it, leaving the Doctor and Turlough to bring Sullivan and Alcatraz closer together.

"Do you recognise it?" Turlough asked the Doctor, keeping his voice low despite the distance between them and the other riders.

"Not immediately," the Doctor shook his head as he thoughtfully studied the ship below them, the other dragons flying cautiously around it. "But then, I wasn't expecting to; the dragons have apparently been active in this archipelago for a good few centuries, so this ship must have been discovered on the Drationan homeworld some time before that if they were to create the dragons and bring them here…"

"At that size?" Turlough looked uncertainly at the ship. "It's large, but could that one ship have really brought _all_ the dragons here?"

"When we don't know how they brought the dragons here, the size of the ship isn't a factor; they could have brought various eggs here in various groups, and that's assuming they haven't modified it over the years or they didn't use some kind of transmat storage system."

"Right… and you don't have any ideas about the species who might have designed it?"

"Information about space-faring races that far back in galactic history is a rather vague period even for my people," the Doctor explained. "You have to keep in mind that the similar developing rate of planets means that most species develop space travel at a relatively uniform rate. Space travel is fairly common by your relative present, give or take a couple of centuries either way, because life evolved at a similar rate on the various planets. This far back, most civilised races that might have reached a suitable technological level had some fluke that hindered their own efforts to achieve space travel; as an example, the Venusians never got off-world because they were allergic to most metals and so couldn't build spaceships themselves."

"Really?" Turlough looked at the Time Lord in surprise. "Venus was actually _inhabited_?"

"Centuries back in the past; they were a pleasant enough people, but they had a complicated culture that made them tricky to get along with if you weren't careful," the Doctor explained. "Anyway, any races that did develop the technology for space travel that far back didn't really 'advertise' that they could do it anyway."

"Protecting the primitive species?"

"Mostly they just didn't consider it worth bothering their inferiors, assuming they found a planet with any kind of sentient life on it," the Doctor explained, even as his subtle expression suggested that he disapproved of that philosophy. "Add in how most advanced species find it easier not to leave traces, and it's easy enough to speculate that whoever created this-"

The sound of a loud roar cut off the Doctor's talk with his companion, the two turning around to stare in horror at the sight of a large white dragon flying towards them. The dragon had large red eyes and consisted of a massive head attached to a thin snake-like body with rapidly-beating wings, looking more 'demonic' than any dragon the two had seen so far.

The two time-travellers barely had time to take in the new arrival before it let out a devastating roar that knocked Sullivan and Alcatraz off-balance, the two dragons falling down for a few moments before they managed to regain their balance. As the large dragon prepared a powerful fireball in the back of its throat, Sullivan fired a blast of water down the dragon's throat, leaving the new dragon suddenly gasping in shock as the Doctor and Turlough dived down towards their allies.

" _Watch out_!" Turlough yelled as they flew towards the other dragons. The time-traveller noticed that Fishlegs and Meatlug had already joined the group before he or the Doctor had, but assumed that Fishlegs had noticed the larger dragon earlier.

"Screaming Death?" Astrid looked up at the white dragon in surprise. "They caught _that_?"

"And it's not the only thing!" Snotlout yelled, pointing off to another part of the island to reveal a large dragon flying towards them. Even at a distance, Turlough found himself comparing the dragon to a larger version of Meatlug, apart from proportionately narrower eyes and a much larger lower jaw that looked like it could split in half whenever it opened the jaw to roar at them.

"They got the _Quaken_?" Fishlegs yelled.

"The Quaken?" the Doctor asked.

"A larger Boulder-class we met a few months ago-" Hiccup began, before pulling Toothless up as the Quaken let out a devastating roar. "And we can explain that _later_ ; we have to stop it!"

"It's controlled!" Turlough pointed out, indicating the now-familiar silver gleam by what would be the Quaken's 'ear'.

"Great," Hiccup groaned. "Now we have to deal with both of them at once-"

A loud roar prompted the other dragons to dive to various sides as the Screaming Death charged towards them, letting out another painful screech that forced the dragons to the ground. Just in time, Fishlegs leaned forward to press his hands over Meatlug's ears, pushing the other dragon forward so that she rammed directly into the other dragon's head. The weight of the other dragon was enough to force the Screaming Death down just as the Quaken slammed itself into the ground. Realising what was about to happen, the original Riders and their dragons managed to spread their wings and adjust their position in time to basically ride the shockwave into the air, but Sullivan and Alcatraz were knocked off-balance as the Doctor and Turlough clutched at their reigns, while the Screaming Death was sent flying back before it could even get up from the last attack.

"Hit it hard!" the Doctor and Turlough heard Hiccup yell as they fought to regain their balance on their dragons, looking up in time to see the other riders fire a mass of flame attacks at the downed Screaming Death. The Screaming Death let out a pained roar at first, but as soon as the flames died down it practically leapt back into the air, charging towards Stormfly with its mouth wide open. Astrid and Stormfly were able to dive to safety even as the Nadder fired a few tail-spines at the large white dragon, but the dragon just closed its eyes and the spines practically fell off the larger dragon's hide with limited impact.

"The Quaken's getting up!" Fishlegs called out anxiously, the Riders turning around to see the other dragon flying back into the air. "How do we-?"

"Use them against each other!" the Doctor called out, Sullivan finally levelling out as he and Turlough regained proper control of their dragons.

"Against _each other_?" Snotlout looked at the Doctor with disdain. "That's not going to-"

"No, he's right!" Hiccup smiled. "They're too powerful for us to take them on one at a time, but we've already seen that they don't think very well with those things on them; if we can bait them into an attack-"

"Good call; I'll take the Quaken!" Astrid nodded at Hiccup before Stormfly turned to fly towards the bulkier dragon. As Hiccup and Toothless charged towards the Screaming Death, the Doctor and Turlough exchanged glances before the Doctor and Sullivan followed Hiccup towards the Screaming Death, Turlough rolling his eyes in frustration with himself before he turned Alcatraz to follow Stormfly. Approaching the larger Boulder-class, Turlough decided to go for the simple approach and direct Alcatraz to basically ram the Quaken as it began to rise back into the air, knocking it down even if he missed the silver control device on the side of the dragon's head. Following Turlough's example, Fishlegs rammed Meatlug into the Quaken's side, once again forcing the other dragon to the ground.

" _Move_!" the Doctor and Hiccup's voices yelled from above. Turlough glanced up just long enough to see the Screaming Death now diving towards the ground before he swiftly guided Alcatraz to safety, Fishlegs following his example on the other side of the dragon. Looking back, he saw Toothless and Sullivan leading the large white dragon towards the ground, but the black and blue dragons dived to either side as soon as they had led the Screaming Death into position in front of the Quaken. Neither of the two large dragons had the chance to change direction before they crashed into each other, the Quaken falling to the ground with a gentle thud while the Screaming Death let out a weak gasp before it collapsed.

The Riders didn't have time to let out more than a brief cheer before another hatch opened in the rear of the ship below them, and Turlough was surprised to see another large dragon emerge from it. Unlike the more uniform colour schemes of the dragons he and the Doctor had seen so far, this one had vivid colours in a pattern that put Turlough in mind of a butterfly, being mostly a vivid orange with blue patterns on its wings and a thin body, along with long horns and frills on its head and spines on its back.

" _Deathsong_!" the other Riders yelled, urgently pulling their dragons up even as the other dragon raised its head and let out an almost melodic screeching sound. Sullivan and Alcatraz turned to follow the other Riders, but the Doctor and Turlough were just a fraction too slow, as their dragons were drawn towards the song. Hiccup saw what was happening and turned around to dive towards the new orange dragon, only for the dragon to fire blasts of a strange orange substance at the approaching riders. The Doctor tried to direct Sullivan to safety, but he and the dragon were suddenly forced to the ground as Sullivan's wings were covered in a thick orange substance that the Doctor could only think of as amber, basically trapping the wings in place. Glancing around at the other nearby Riders, the Doctor saw that Toothless and Alcatraz had fallen victim to a similar attack, and the other Riders were desperately trying to get their own dragons out of range of their new enemy.

The moment Sullivan hit the ground, the Doctor leapt off the dragon and tried to roll to safety- he had been far better at that kind of maneouvre a couple of bodies ago- but before he could get to safety, the dragon fired another blast of amber at him, trapping the Doctor in a strange orange cocoon alongside Sullivan. His head and shoulders were still mobile enough that he could look around and confirm that the same fate had befallen Hiccup, Turlough, Toothless and Alcatraz, the dragons' wings trapped and their riders immobilized in more amber cocoons just to the side of the dragons. A faint scent reached the Doctor's nose, but as he tried to look in the direction of the scent he just managed to see Barf and Belch trying to get in close to attack the larger dragon, only for another blast of this orange stuff to trap the dragon's main body. As the two-headed dragon fell to the ground, the Doctor saw the twins leap off and run towards Hiccup and Toothless as the large blue-and-orange dragon circled above them.

Meatlug and Fishlegs tried to take advantage of the Deathsong's focus to basically drop onto it from above, but the other dragon was too fast, a powerful beat of its wings sending it flying out of Meatlug's path as the boulder-class dragon dropped to the ground. The unexpected impact threw Fishlegs off the dragon and face-first into the nearby ground, the Deathsong trapping both rider and dragon before they could get up. Stormfly and Hookfang tried to attack the dragon from above but the Deathsong performed a surprising mid-air turn and blasted both dragons' mouths shut before they could do more than force it down a few feet.

While Astrid took Stormfly into a dive past the Deathsong, Hookfang turned into a flaming missile as he charged at the larger dragon, Snotlout letting out a scream that was only partly based on the thrill of the dive, but the Deathsong fired another blast of amber that enveloped Hookfang's head and neck, trapping Snotlout into the bargain. The panicking dragon extinguished the flames and dived sharply towards the ground, shattering the amber around his head and rider, but the Deathsong launched another blast of amber that trapped Hookfang on the ground before he could get back in the air. Snotlout had been thrown from his dragon when they hit the ground, but he only had time to stand up before he was forced down by another blast of amber, a further three blasts trapping Stormfly and the twins as they turned to face their foe.

As the Deathsong flew back towards the ship, the Doctor looked up from his cocooned prison and winced at the sight of a Drationan emerging from a hatch at the lower part of the ship, dressed in a manner that would have been considered 'excessively regal' even by the standards of some of his peers back on Gallifrey. The Drationan's white skin and large 'tusks' made a sharp contrast to the figure's long red robes, along with a golden staff in one hand that the Doctor was sure this figure was just carrying because it looked good rather than because it actually needed it.

If the Doctor's travels had taught him anything, this new arrival was certainly the leader of the Drationan forces, which left them

"Ah," the Drationan said, looking around at the trapped group of humans and dragons with a mocking smile. "So you would be the 'Dragon Riders' I have heard so much about?"

"And you'd be the Drationan… is 'chief' or 'Alpha' appropriate?" Hiccup countered, trying to sound controlled despite his current circumstances.

"'Master' will do," the figure smirked, as additional Drationans emerged from the ship to gather around their leader, aiming their own staffs at the fallen dragons.

"I'd rather not, thanks," the Doctor cut in, adjusting his position as much as possible as he looked firmly at the new figure. "I already know one person who calls himself that, and I'd rather not have another 'Master' in my life; maybe you could give us your name before we start debating titles?"

"If you wish, good sir," the Drationan said, inclining his head slightly at the Doctor, the large tusks making his mocking grin all the more disturbing. "I am Nicarlet, commander of the Dragon Reclamation Program."

"Program?" Hiccup repeated.

"Think of it as a… plan of action," the Doctor explained, looking awkwardly over at the on-legged Viking.

"Precisely," Nicarlet nodded at the Doctor before crouching down to look more curiously at the Time Lord. "You know a great deal that this culture should not…"

"I know many things, Nicarlet," the Doctor countered. "Not all of them that I would be willing to share with you."

"I see," Nicarlet said, nodding in a contemplative manner before he looked around at the Riders. "Well, we shall have to see about that."

"Which means?" Ruffnut asked.

"Nothing too arduous," Nicarlet replied with a more teasing grin as he indicated the captured dragons with a sweep of his hand. "Seeing as you have been so kind as to provide us with such a wide variety of dragons, I feel it only fitting that you provide us with a few answers as to how you were all able to control the beasts we provided to you."

"We don't _control_ our dragons; we-" Fishlegs began, before another Drationan grabbed the now-hardened amber and hauled him up, simultaneously giving the amber such a shake that Fishlegs felt as though something had been jostled in his ribcage.

"Get them all inside," the Drationan commander instructed his crew. "The dragons shall be taken to their cages to be fitted with command pieces later, and I shall question their riders myself."

"All of them?" one of the other Drationans said in surprise, even as the apparent woman picked up the twins with one hand each. "But sir, surely you can delegate-?"

"I believe that this conversation will be most interesting, but I would prefer to question these seven primitives on my own, Ferican," the figure said dismissively. "Leave them in the observation lab; I shall be with them shortly."

It was only as they were being marched into the ship that the Doctor realised the implications of those numbers, prompting him to take a quick assessment of the other Riders. He noticed Hiccup making the same quick glance around as the group were led into the ship, but the Doctor only had time to exchange a brief hopeful smile with Hiccup as he realised they had come to the same conclusion.

He didn't know when or how it had happened, but the Drationans had only captured _seven_ of their number rather than the eight there actually were…


	17. The Drationans and the Dragons

Crouching outside the ship, watching grimly as the Drationans led the other Riders into the ship, Astrid tightened her grip on her axe and prayed nobody would look for her.

Right now, she was remembering all of Hiccup's talks with her about the reasons he valued her instincts over Fishlegs' own raw intelligence and hoping that she'd guessed right about the Drationans' level of knowledge. If they hadn't clearly seen the Riders in action in person and had just been relying on their controlled dragons to do the job, it was _just_ possible that these… _things_ … assumed she and the others rode each dragons on a one-by-one basis. If that guess was right, it was just possible that these things thought Barf and Belch only had one rider rather than needing two, particularly when the twins had been so close to Stormfly and their own dragon before they were trapped.

She hated the fact that she'd instinctively dived _off_ Stormfly when she'd seen the Deathsong amber approaching her dragon, but she'd managed to hide behind a nearby rock until the Drationan leader had come down to take the others into the ship. As Hiccup had often reminded them, it wasn't cowardice to avoid a hopeless battle, and with a Deathsong still in play and virtually all other Riders and dragons trapped or about to be trapped, getting out of sight had been the best plan of action.

Looking around the small clearing between her current position and the ship that had brought her unknown enemies here, Astrid supposed that she should just appreciate that there wasn't any Drationan immediately around her.

The only problem now was how to get inside that ship; she had little doubt that the doors they'd used to get the others inside would be heavily guarded, and that hull looked too strong for her to just try and break in on her own. As she carefully studied the ship, her eyes widened as they settled on the enclosed sections where the Drationans had taken Stormfly and the other dragons. She couldn't see any obvious way into those cages from the outside, but if she could just find some way to signal the dragons from outside their cages… so long as they hadn't added those control device things the Doctor had been so worried about…

Astrid didn't care what Piervin had said about his people creating the dragons; she wasn't going to let anyone turn Stormfly into some kind of sick weapon for whatever war they wanted her to fight.

* * *

Strapped to a chair in a large room, with Turlough and the dragon riders sitting/strapped in other chairs around the room, the Doctor wondered what it said about the nature of the universe that this kind of cliché interrogation technique dated back so far. He admittedly had no way of knowing whether this interrogation room was something that had been in the ship originally or had been added after they acquired it, but the fact that they had retained the room in the first instance wasn't exactly encouraging.  
  
Still, on the upside, at least the Riders had spent enough time in proximity to himself and the TARDIS over the last few days for him to have discreetly shared his ship's translation capacity with each of them; he could only imagine the complications if he and Turlough had been the only ones able to understand what Nicarlet and the other Drationans were saying…  
  
"I trust you're comfortable?" Nicarlet said as he walked into the room, grinning around at his prisoners as he nonchalantly adjusted a sleeve of his robes.  
  
"Is there a reason we're like… well, _this_?" Fishlegs tried to wave his bound arm at himself. "I mean, I don't _want_ to be locked up, but-"  
  
"We don't exactly have standard cells available for more intelligent prisoners such as yourselves, and I'm hardly going to be keeping you all around long enough for such an issue as your long-term comfort to matter," Nicarlet replied with an easy grin on his face that put the Doctor in mind of those occasions when he witnessed the Master interacting with people who didn't know just how twisted he was, when his old friend wanted to make people think he was 'harmless' before he killed them anyway. "Now then, as long as you're here, maybe you could explain how you ended up in control of such fascinating creatures?"  
  
"Firstly, we don't 'control' our dragons, and secondly, if we're going to tell you anything, maybe you could answer a few of _our_ questions about this whole… I mean, if you _really_ created the dragons, how did that even work?" Hiccup asked.  
  
"And why did you leave them here rather than keep them… with you?" Turlough cut in, a brief glance at the Doctor the only sign that he'd remembered they didn't want to discuss other planets yet. "This has to be fairly… well, you clearly came a long way to leave them, so why not keep them nearer?"  
  
"And where did you get this ship in the first place?" the Doctor added with a polite smile, looking around the hall with casual interest. "I'm not going to deny that you're clearly an intelligent race, but your attire… well, it suggests to me that you haven't reached the right stage to achieve this level of technology culturally."  
  
"I see," Nicarlet said, looking at the Doctor with a particularly blank expression. The Time Lord was briefly concerned that his observations had pushed their current opponent too far, but Nicarlet finally smiled and nodded in acknowledgement at the Time Lord. "You have a surprising degree of insight for someone from such a primitive background."  
  
"This group is… a lot smarter than you'd assume," the Doctor said defensively; he appreciated that the twins and Snotlout in particular weren't conventionally intelligent, but the twins had a creativity that made up for that and Snotlout had potential if he could be convinced to apply himself. "As Hiccup said, if you answer our questions, we'll see what we can do about answering yours."  
  
"You expect me to believe you understand even the _idea_ of genetic engineering?"  
  
"Taking samples from different animals and mixing them all together to create something new?" Hiccup observed.  
  
"Yeah, we got all that," Tuffnut said, actually managing to sound bored at the concept (the Doctor chose to interpret that as him just being good at hiding his feelings rather than him exaggerating his understanding). "Seems like a lot of effort for not that much on your part; we're the ones who got the cool partners out of your work, after all."  
  
"We shall see," Nicarlet said, raising a pointed eyebrow as he studied the Riders for a moment before he shrugged. "Very well, if you insist; my grandfather acquired this ship in the prime of his life, although the stories vary on whether he explicitly claimed it from its previous owner or simply discovered it after the death of the individual in question. Our initial attempts to study its technology directly met with mixed results, but once we were able to grasp the context of the genetic engineering, we were inspired to explore new opportunities to improve ourselves."  
  
"Which led to you using animals as test subject?" Turlough asked.  
  
"Naturally," Nicarlet inclined his head. "We couldn't risk the consequences of such radical procedures on sentient beings."  
  
"I see," the Doctor said, giving the Drationan that rare look of cold contempt that Turlough always regretted inspiring from his friend.  
  
"What was truly amazing was the scale of the changes we were able to create," Nicarlet continued nonchalantly. "Their ability to fly was significant all on its own, and we had always intended to enhance their strength and endurance, but their unique range of projectile weaponry was the true achievement. So many different types of flame, to say nothing of the cases where they possessed poison or rock as weapons…"  
  
"And that wasn't enough for you?" Ruffnut asked. "You could blow up anything-"  
  
"But it was still fundamentally unpredictable," Nicarlet cut her off. "What you have come to call dragons needed extensive breeding if they were going to do anything more than blow up as soon as they tried to use their shots, to say nothing of their ability to fly being limited and unpredictable. We had a few key successes with the Alpha dragons as we devoted so much time to ensuring their own superiority, but even they would take time to grow into their powers, so we concluded that it would be best to leave their eggs somewhere out of the way to grow and develop on their own. We were able to interface with the ship to express what we were looking for, and eventually… well, here we are."  
  
"Interface with it?" the Doctor asked, before the meaning struck him. "Of course, this ship has more knowledge than you were expecting, correct?"  
  
"Which meant you couldn't be sure what you were looking for on your own…" Turlough smiled slightly at the Drationan.  
  
"We understand that this ship possesses a wide database with information on a range of locations, but we have… experienced trouble accessing it in depth," Nicarlet acknowledged with a bitter edge to his voice. "The best solution we have found so far is to connect it to one of the mental amplifiers and project a general idea of what we seek into the ship's database, and subsequently 'trust' the ship to take us somewhere suitable. We were able to instruct the ship to find a suitable habitat for our creations, as an isolated spot with a primitive people who could not put that same plan into action against us, but we could not get it to give us a clear list of options in return; we were brought to this place, and we had to accept it."  
  
"You… told your ship… what you were looking for?" Fishlegs asked uncertainly.  
  
"I… think I get that," Hiccup nodded tentatively before he glanced over at Fishlegs. "Like how you used cards to instruct Iggy what you wanted him to fetch, maybe? I mean, you couldn't just _tell_ him what you wanted him to bring you, but he recognised the objects; it's just that he'd only go for Alvin's sword because Alvin had it out already, something like that…"  
  
"A fair analogy for your technological ability," Nicarlet nodded at the two Vikings, an edge of grudging admiration in his tone.  
  
"But if you just had this ship, how did you get those fighters we encountered?" Turlough asked.  
  
"We spent some time reverse-engineering the engines in particular to adapt them to smaller vehicles," the Drationan shrugged. "We still have some fine details to make them a proper fleet, and the initial weapons are poor substitutes for what the main ship would have been capable of, but with the dragons for additional firepower we shall have other options available soon enough."  
  
"Reverse-engineer?" Ruffnut asked.  
  
"Compare it to that… Dragonfly suit Hiccup told me about," the Doctor explained with a brief smile. "Just as he has been able to work out how to fly by studying dragons, the Drationans have been able to create their fighters by studying this ship and essentially working out how to copy it."  
  
"You can fly?" Nicarlet looked at Hiccup in surprise.  
  
"It's just a few bits of leather acting as basic wings; it's not like I can do… well, whatever you're doing with this stuff," Hiccup said, waving his hand at their surroundings before focusing his gaze back on Nicarlet. "OK, so you made those little ships by copying the big one and you're trying to get the dragons for firepower, but where does the Dragon Eye fit into all this?"  
  
"Dragon Eye?"  
  
"What we call the device that uses these," Hiccup clarified, reaching carefully into the pocket of his jacket to take out one of the lenses that he'd taken to keeping on him at all times.  
  
"Ah," Nicarlet said, nodding in understanding, even as he seemed to grin around his tusks. "To deal with the obvious, those lenses are made of a psychically-sensitive metal that was found on our world, with each lens specifically attuned to each type of dragon."  
  
"Like I thought," the Doctor nodded, drawing Nicarlet's attention back to him as Hiccup slipped the lens back into his pocket.  
  
"Psychic metal?" Ruffnut looked curiously at the Doctor. "Like that stuff you told us about those… crystal things on the net?"  
  
"Precisely," the Doctor smiled at the female twin, before turning his head to address the rest of the Riders. "As I previously speculated, the lenses are likely able to update themselves as the dragons develop, ensuring that whoever holds the lenses are provided with the most detailed information possible about the dragons they were designed to monitor."  
  
"So… you're saying that the Dragon Eye lenses… change themselves?" Hiccup looked curiously at the Doctor. "Like… as the dragons change, the lenses _write_ themselves?"  
  
"Most likely," the Doctor nodded. "As each dragon recorded on the lenses changes and moves around the island archipelago, the lenses record the information over time… which would be the reason you created them in the first place, I assume?"  
  
"Precisely," Nicarlet smiled.  
  
"How did you encode them to respond to each dragon?"  
  
"As you have doubtless observed, each lenses relates to a particular breed of dragon; the water-dwellers, the rock-eaters, and so on. To attune them properly, we catalysed each lens by exposing them to the energies used to amalgamate the original genetic strands for each dragon, filtered through a sample of the original raw genetic material, and followed it up by having our best mind-masters encode the existing information on each lens as a starting template." He shrugged. "It obviously has the disadvantage that the material is only available through the illumination provided by the various dragons, but collecting the initial specimens is a simple enough matter."  
  
"And the information remains up-to-date?" the Doctor asked, curious despite himself. "You don't need to do anything to the lenses themselves to make sure they record anything?"  
  
"Like the Sazou of our cousins, the lenses have a limited awareness even when nobody has issued them commands directly."  
  
"So… you came here to reclaim the lenses?"  
  
"As with everything they had recorded on them," Nicarlet affirmed. "And the dragons, but I would assume that goes without saying."  
  
"But why do that?" Snotlout asked, before Hiccup could ask a question himself. "If you wanted to learn about the dragons, if you really did create them and the lenses you've probably already got the basics; you could just go out and _look_ -"  
  
"Which would take considerable time, even assuming that everything had gone as planned and the dragons had confined themselves to a particular part of this island," Nicarlet smiled. "The… Dragon Eye, as you call it, provides an efficient means of gathering information on our creations, allowing us to simply retrieve the lenses and gain all necessary information on them in a few simple moves. Thanks to the Eye, we shall receive all the necessary information about how our creations have evolved, without the tedium of having to remain and keep track of such details by ourselves."  
  
"Uh… the Eye helps you keep track of the dragons?" Tuffnut asked, the other Riders looking curiously at the Doctor. "How does that work?"  
  
"Basically the Dragon Eye lenses are keeping an eye on the dragons as they grow and change over time," the Doctor explained, even as he kept a careful eye on the Drationan. "The Drationans started them off, but they couldn't predict how the dragons would change afterwards; as he said, the psychic nature of the lenses meant that they could keep track of how the dragons changed over time, without the Drationans actually needing to be here to do the work themselves."  
  
"That's… OK, it's confusing, but that seems like a bit of a cheat," Hiccup looked over at the Drationan Alpha.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with taking a shortcut in dealing with a difficult situation," Nicarlet smiled. "We get all the necessary information to confirm how our creations have progressed, and obtain the necessary information to ensure our own conquest of this world as the first step in our new army."  
  
"Actually, there is a great _deal_ wrong with that scenario," the Doctor countered. "If nothing else, we all have serious objections to the idea of enslaving other creatures to use as tools of war-"  
  
"And you don't use these dragons to fight your enemies on your behalf?"  
  
"We 'use' our dragons to help protect other dragons from people like you; none of them _have_ to stay with us," Hiccup said indignantly. "You'd take away their choice-!"  
  
"You talk to me of choice when your own dragon cannot even _fly_ without you?"  
  
"I didn't maim Toothless to control him; I just… look, the injury helped me train him in the first place-"  
  
"One last question, if you wouldn't mind indulging my curiosity," the Doctor put in, not wanting Hiccup to get caught up in that kind of debate with someone who he doubted would ever understand Hiccup's bond with his dragon. "Considering everything I've seen, what exactly is your relationship to the Draconians?"  
  
"Ah, the residents of our sister world," Nicarlet smiled, even as his eyes briefly widened as he looked thoughtfully at the Doctor. "They have been observed, and they are certainly formidable fighters even without our leg-up, but frankly, their focus on honourable combat is… boring."  
  
" _Boring_?" Hiccup looked at Nicarlet in outrage.  
  
"Where is the point in waiting for your enemy to engage you?" Nicarlet shrugged, even as the other Vikings shot him a cool glare. "Victory alone is all that matters; our Draconian brethren may prefer 'honourable combat', but frankly the true style comes in dispatching your enemies before they can fight back, not putting yourself at risk in the name of 'fair play'."  
  
"An attitude that makes it too easy to resort to war to make your point and only works as long as you're certain of remaining the 'top dog'," the Doctor looked contemptuously at Nicarlet. "If there is no risk in war, than you miss the whole point of it-"  
  
"Which is a matter that I am sure others may be happy to debate, but I am not one of them," Nicarlet cut the Doctor off, his indulgent smile shifting to a cool glare as he looked at the Riders. "In any case, now that I have satisfied your curiosity, I assume you will be more receptive to answering my own queries?"  
  
"When we know you'll be torturing and enslaving dragons?" Fishlegs glared at Nicarlet. "Do you really think we're going to help you?"  
  
"One fascinating thing about thought-controlled technology is that it's remarkably easy to push someone to their limits," Nicarlet said with a satisfied smirk as he studied the surrounding Riders. "Of course, we're still working out the practical applications when dealing with organic minds rather than computers, but that's the advantage of having so many potential test subjects…"


	18. Breaking Out the Dragons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: For the HtTYD fans, I've just started assisting Sandy97 in translating her HtTYD/Frozen fic “ _[Crossed Souls](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13634253/1/Crossed-souls-English-version-of-Almas-Cruzadas)_ ” from Spanish into English, so I can recommend checking that out. It's a fascinating storyline that brings the two worlds together in a remarkable manner, as Drago Bludvist attacks Arendelle searching for the secret to the land's ancient magics, while the new alliance between Berk and Arendelle forces Hiccup and Elsa into a political marriage that leaves them to deal with growing feelings for each on top of Hiccup's enduring love for Astrid and Elsa developing her own complicated dynamic with the blonde Viking.

Studying the solid-looking doors that kept the dragons contained, Astrid's mind raced as she tried to consider her next move. Getting to the ship and up to the cages had been relatively straightforward all things considered, considering the minimal amount of guards hanging around the island after her friends had been captured, but once she'd actually reached the ship it had become obvious pretty quickly that she had no idea what this thing was. It was too far inland to be a sea-faring ship, she didn't see any clear sign of how it could fly, and she had no idea how she might make sure it couldn't leave even if she knew what it was.

_At least I know that releasing the dragons is my best bet; I just need to work out how to pull that off…_

Despite the grim nature of the current situation, Astrid felt a certain pride as she realised what she had to do. Stormfly might be her regular partner, but she'd spent enough time riding Toothless with Hiccup that she could manage him easily enough, she had experience of training Hookfang from that incident when they were clearing out Mildew's old field, and she'd at least spent time watching the others work with their dragons. Hiccup would probably be the best person qualified to deal with this, but Astrid liked to think that she picked up enough from spending time with him to do the job herself…

What made Astrid really wonder about this situation was the fact that she was taking it so casually. She could barely even understand where these flying ships came from and what they were capable of, and that Drationan… Gods, was it some kind of goblin thing or some other horror-child of Loki's?

She didn't know where any of these things came from, but somehow it was surprisingly easy to accept the impossible situation facing them. A part of her wanted to assume that it was because she and the other Riders had spent so long facing seemingly impossible odds that it was easy for them to accept things they could never have believed in before, but another, smaller part of her had to acknowledge that there was more behind her acceptance than just past experience.

She couldn't explain why it made sense, but there was something about the Doctor's presence on the Edge over the last few days that made her feel like… like they'd all become part of something bigger…

Putting those thoughts aside, Astrid turned her attention to examining the 'cage' area, and was surprised to realise that her initial assessment of it hadn't been entirely accurate. She'd assumed from a distance that this was part of the main ship, but when she moved along it, the sound of her feet suggested that it was made of a more fragile metal than the thicker structure of the main ship. She initially wondered if it was a botched repair job, but soon re-evaluated her thoughts; considering the scale of the cages, it was more likely that these people had just erected this structure to hold the dragons until they could set up something more permanent.

She obviously didn't know much about this kind of ship-building, but from everything she was seeing, she was inclined to think that this cage structure was basically an add-on intended to make the ship look bigger than it was. The idea was probably to make an intimidating impression for whoever tried to attack them, but as far as Astrid was concerned, right now it just gave her a bigger target to take down without worrying about being caught.

Making her way cautiously along the 'building', Astrid listened carefully to the sound each dragon made as she walked across each 'door'. The metal muffled the sound slightly, but Astrid had listened to her friends' dragons often enough that it wasn't that hard to pick out each one, and Alcatraz and Sullivan were each fairly distinctive as well so long as she remembered that Alcatraz had a deeper tone than Meatlug. The order of the cages seemed to have been random, but it also meant that Astrid already had a potential plan that only needed her to get the relevant dragons to coordinate.

"Stormfly?" she said as she stood over the cage that she had tentatively identified as the one holding her own dragon, smiling in relief as her girl roared in response. "Glad you're OK, girl; just give me a moment."

With that confirmed, she moved over to the next door and carefully tapped her foot against it, smiling as she registered the unfamiliar, questioning roar.

"Sullivan, right?" she said, glad when the dragon gave a soft roar of confirmation; the Tide Glider sounded uncertain, but Astrid hoped that he would at least recognise her as a friend. "I have an idea that could get you out, but I need you to do what I tell you, OK?"

Astrid was never entirely sure how much dragons could understand when she and the other Riders talked to them, but when Sullivan let out an affirmative rumble, it really made her regret how long it had taken Berk to realise that dragons could be trained. Back when they'd been fighting, how many dragons would have just backed off if any of the Vikings had tried to talk to them, instead of everyone just lashing out in anger?

She could understand that nobody would have realised that was an option at the time, but it still made her regret how long much time they'd wasted. Maybe they would have still lost some food and livestock, but at least they could have avoided quite so many deaths…

"OK," she said, moving to stand at a point that she estimated was between the two dragons' cells, stamping a foot on each side. "Did you both hear that?"

The dragons both roared in understanding.

"Right," she continued, moving down to stamp on the edge of the cell towards the front of the cage. "You heard where I stamped there, right?" Once the dragons had let out another affirmative roar, she continued. "I'm moving back up the cells here; when I next stamp on the roofs of your cells, you need to aim your… breath attacks… at the point where I just stamped, and stop when I stamp again. OK?"

The dragons roared in what Astrid felt was tentative understanding from Stormfly's part at least; she just had to hope that Sullivan understood enough to get the point at her end.

"OK; let's test this." Stamping hard on Stormfly's side of the cell, she watched the corner for a few moments, and then stamped again when she saw it turn red-hot. Stamping on Sullivan's side, she watched as the red area rapidly cooled by his water-blast before another stamp ended the Tide Glider's attack. She repeated the process a couple more times before she ran up to the cooling metal and struck it with her axe. As she'd anticipated from past experience watching Hiccup in the forge, the metal had become brittle from the alternating heating and cooling attacks and easily broke from the blow inflicted by her own weapon, creating a hole in both cells that Stormfly and Sullivan charged at practically simultaneously.

The weakened metal could have probably kept the dragons contained when it was intact, but with such a gaping hole there already the wall broke even further as Stormfly rammed into it. A few blasts from Sullivan actually caused the metal on his side to start melting even as Astrid watched, but she didn't have much time to take it before she stepped back as the blue dragon erupted from his cell, letting out a roar of frustration and anger that was soon joined by Stormfly as the Nadder forced her way out of her cell. Astrid only just managed to leap onto Stormfly's back as the dragon returned to the sky, the blonde warrior sparing a moment to give Stormfly an affectionate rub behind her horn-frills before they turned around mid-air to turn their attention back to the other cells.

Unsure when the Drationan forces would leave the main ship to try and capture her again, Astrid turned her attention to making a few quick dives towards the cells, firing blasts of flame and acid at each cell and then pulling up as the dragons inside began to fire back themselves. It had taken both Stormfly and Sullivan working together to get out of their cells, but Astrid hoped that a two-sided attack would be enough to get through the metal now-

She wasn't sure what happened, but when Stormfly's latest attack struck a large lump of metal located close to the main body of the ship, Astrid was certain that the following large explosion wasn't just because Stormfly's flame was particularly hot even by dragon standards, and she was equally sure that things had just become worse even before she heard a few particularly loud and familiar roars.

_I'm going to need help…_

* * *

"You don't have to do this," the Doctor protested urgently even as he was moved from his original seat into a larger chair that had been moved to the centre of the room. "If you just give us-"  
  
"You would draw out any opportunity you had even if you were willing to give us anything useful," Nicarlet said dismissively. "The telepathic interface has some teething troubles, of course, but that's one reason for starting with the one who clearly knows the most about the wider universe rather the rest of you; there is so much more in your mind that you can probably stand to lose a few neurons if we haven't got this working properly…"  
  
"You can't-!" Turlough protested.  
  
"There is very little that we cannot do," Nicarlet grinned over at Turlough. "We _will_ have the dragons; all we require is a little time…"  
  
The sound of an explosion shook the entire ship, knocking Nicarlet off-balance even as the Riders remained trapped in their chairs.  
  
"What in the-?" Nicarlet began, before two loud roars were heard from outside.  
  
"Was that-?" Turlough looked at the Doctor.  
  
"Sullivan, unless I'm very much mistaken," the Doctor grinned as the sound of more blasts reached them from outside the ship. "Nicarlet, I don't think you're in a good position right now."  
  
"Because one dragon-"  
  
" _Two_ ," Ruffnut cut in. "Didn't you hear that there were _two_ roars just now?"  
  
"And-" Tuffnut continued, pausing as another explosion shook the ship, "we have a few more dragons about to join our little escape attempt."  
  
"You cannot-!" Nicarlet began before he was interrupted by a new series of roars.  
  
"Hey, you can't control the dragons, you can't complain if they don't want to stick around," Snotlout grinned, just as a louder explosion shook the building, followed by sparks of electricity from the straps that had been holding the Riders to their chairs. The moment the chairs had stopped holding them down, Snotlout and the twins charged at Nicarlet, forcing the Drationan to the ground as Hiccup and Turlough moved to help the Doctor back to his feet.  
  
"Right then," the Doctor nodded, smiling uncertainly at Nicarlet as the twins and Snotlout held the Drationan leader down, "shall we talk about-?"  
  
Any possibility that the Doctor might be able to talk with the Drationan was cut short when the wall alongside them was torn away, followed by a violent roar as the Catastrophic Quaken stuck its head through the wall and roared at the group of shocked Riders before it flew back out of the hole. The Riders, the Doctor and Turlough looked at each other in shock for a moment before Astrid and Stormfly flew up to the hole themselves, followed by the other dragons, Alcatraz carrying Toothless by the saddle before dropping the Night Fury to the edge of the hole.  
  
"Toothless!" Hiccup grinned, running up to his friend as the other dragons flew to join their Riders.  
  
"Everyone OK in here?" Astrid asked as she got off the dragon, before her gaze settled coolly on Nicarlet. "I take it he's the one in charge of these guys?"  
  
"Pretty much," Turlough nodded, even as he scrambled back onto Alcatraz's back.  
  
"Let's just say that's it's… been an interesting few moments," Hiccup said as he settled into position on Toothless's back. "Right now, could you maybe clear up what happened out there?"  
  
"I managed to get Stormfly and Sullivan to work together to break out of their cells, but when we turned back to release the rest of the dragons…" Astrid began, before a loud roar outside prompted the group to glance out of the hole, their eyes widening in shock at the sight of the Screaming Death and the Deathsong flying above the ship, firing attacks at each other as they roared in rage.  
  
"They got out, huh?" Hiccup looked over at Astrid.  
  
"Yeah," Astrid nodded, as the three large dragons roared in anger outside. "We should probably get them out of here before the Drationans catch them again, right?"  
  
"You will not-!" Nicarlet began, before Snotlout hit him in the face with such force that it sent the Drationan falling to the ground once again, this time clearly unconscious.  
  
"I don't normally approve of violence as a solution, but I'll consider that putting this particular debate on hold until we're in a better position to deal with it," the Doctor said, looking coolly at the young Viking as he climbed back onto Sullivan before he turned to look around at the other Riders. "I'll see if I can erase the Drationans' records to make sure they can't do this again; you see about getting those dragons out of here."  
  
"Hey, why do you get to stay _out_ of the hard bit?" Snotlout asked, shaking his hand as he glared between the Doctor and Nicarlet.  
  
"Because he'd actually know what he's likely to find to do the job, and I doubt any of you would," Turlough put in, as he glanced through the hole at the three fighting dragons outside, alternating their attention between each other and a few small shots from what he assumed were Drationan forces on the ground. "Let's focus on getting things under control here, and let the Doctor deal with things in there."  
  
"You're helping out?" Fishlegs asked. "Shouldn't you-?"  
  
"The Doctor's the expert, and I'm… just an apprentice," Turlough said, indicating Alcatraz with a slight smile. "I only know so much, but with these odds, I think I'm more useful as the student with the largest dragon."  
  
"I can work with that," Hiccup nodded at Turlough before he glanced over at the Doctor. "You're sure you know what you're looking for?"  
  
"I think I have a few ideas, certainly," the Doctor nodded as he settled into position on Sullivan. "I'll take a look at what this ship has to offer and work out where I might find the main records; you all try and subdue those dragons."  
  
"No pressure, huh?" Tuffnut grinned, even as the seven dragons flew back out of the crack.  
  
 _From fighting alien monsters to riding dragons; this has definitely been the most interesting few weeks I've ever had in the TARDIS_ …


	19. The Ultimate Dragon

If there was one advantage to the Doctor's long experience navigating the TARDIS's shifting interior corridors, it was that it made it even easier for him to make his way through smaller ships like this one. It was slightly harder to navigate the corridors with Sullivan walking alongside him, but after a couple of attacking Drationans were forced back by blasts of scalding hot water from his new associate, the Doctor was prepared to put up with the 'inconvenience' of a large dragon following him in exchange for the extra protection.

After a few moments of heading for the centre of the ship, the Doctor was relieved when he found himself standing in what could only be the bridge of this ship, with a series of simple-looking controls, along with a few symbols that jogged something in the Doctor's memory that he couldn't entirely place.

"Well," he glanced back at Sullivan with a tentative smile, "at least this confirms that we're not dealing with something unfamiliar, although that doesn't exactly help me narrow it down…"

Stroking his hands cautiously over the controls as Sullivan let out a curious murmur, the Doctor smiled when his tentative telepathic contact triggered a response from one set of controls. Placing his hand more firmly on it, the Doctor hoped that this wasn't going to be as unpleasant as his attempt to 'communicate' with the Waro a couple of bodies back; machines shouldn't be as dangerous as the insane anger of the Waro, but there was always the possibility that the Drationans had included a few security protocols…

As he felt himself probe further into the controls, the Doctor grinned in relief as he took in the scale of his new access to the system. He wasn't sure if it was just because he had a more open mind than the Drationans or because they were comparatively inexperienced with this kind of technology, but it seemed as though they hadn't even bothered to install any kind of psychic firewall on this ship's systems.

It took a little time for the Doctor to confirm what systems the Drationans were using to control the dragons, but once he'd found that, he quickly turned his attention back to the matter of deleting the ship's records. His fingers flying over the controls while his mind raced through the database, the Doctor had soon taken in some of the key details of the Drationans' research on the dragons to satisfy his own curiosity and deleted the main drives of the information. It was possible that they had some off-network back-ups, but considering the lack of firewalls the Doctor doubted the Drationans had the technological knowledge to create more detailed copies of the data elsewhere.

_Of course, there may be more files back on their homeworld that were just copied over here, but without whatever they were hoping to get from the Dragon Eye and the dragons themselves…_

As the idea occurred to him, the Doctor slipped a subtle telepathic virus into the psychic systems; it was just a subtle nudge, but if he had identified the source of this technology correctly, that should be enough to transmit a corruptive signal back into the original database if the Drationans tried to upload the data back into the ship from their other computers.

The files cleared, the Doctor moved his hands to the dragon control system, quickly probing his way through the network. As far as he could determine, the Drationans had adapted a telepathic transmitter that was already in this ship to focus on the dragons, incorporating some of their own psychic technology and adapting it for their own minds; there were even references to a particular few species of dragon capable of controlling other dragons. Recalling some of the Riders' tales about the large dragon that they had defeated on their first major confrontation with their dragons, the Doctor decided not to analyse that too closely and focused his efforts on tapping into the signal.

_If I understand how this works, it should be possible to transmit my own signal before I have to shut this system down… and it couldn't hurt to give him a chance to stretch his legs again…_

* * *

Diving into the battle waging outside the ship, Turlough had no idea how he'd ended up getting involved in this. He appreciated that Alcatraz had evidently been eager to join the other dragons as they charged at the three flying giants, but the idea that he had anything to contribute to this mess…  
  
When the large bone-white creature that the Riders had identified as the Screaming Death let out a loud roar that sent the twins and their two-headed dragon heading for the ground, the Trion exile didn't even stop to think when he sent Alcatraz charging towards the larger dragon. His strange new ally launched a flaming rock at the other dragon that forced the Screaming Death downwards, leaving Alcatraz free to fly into position above the Screaming Death and then drop downwards to strike his larger opponent on its head.  
  
"Nice!" Ruffnut called over at Turlough as she and her brother righted the Zippleback and the two-headed dragon flew away once again, now spreading a cloud of green gas behind them. Turlough was about to ask what they were doing when the Quaken charged through the gas cloud and was sent flying backwards as the gas was exploded by a spark from the dragon's other head.  
  
A shot from below drew Turlough's attention to the ground, but he soon established that it was just the Drationan forces, now shooting desperately up at the fighting dragons as though they had some desperate hope that they would be able to recapture the dragons. Turlough wasn't sure if the weapons just weren't that strong or the dragons were that powerful, but it was clear that their attacks weren't making much difference; anything that did manage to hit the larger dragons didn't make much of an impact on their hides, and the Riders' own dragons managed to avoid the attacks with relative ease.  
  
"What _are_ those things?" Tuffnut looked incredulously at the energy weapons even as the Zippleback made a desperate spin in the air to dodge the latest shot.  
  
"What they are isn't important; just don't get hit with them!" Turlough yelled, as he sent Alcatraz into a dive that knocked a few of the Drationans down.  
  
 _I don't know if I'll go back to Trion or settle down somewhere else, but whenever I move on from the Doctor, I'm_ definitely _finding somewhere I can talk about advanced technology without messing with history or confusing everyone else…_  
  
"Good call!" Astrid called out as Stormfly fired a few spine-shots at another group of attackers. "Spread out and keep hitting them hard; they can't take us all!"  
  
"That's my kinda plan!" Snotlout yelled, as Hookfang launched a blaze of fire at another group, scattering the Drationans, a few falling to the ground with screams of agony. "Snotlout, Snotlout, oy oy-OW!" The shortest Viking grabbed his arm as a laser bolt skimmed him, nearly losing his balance on his dragon before Fishlegs and Meatlug repeated Turlough's attack, diving down to knock the attacking Drationans out of the way while Hookfang flew out of range-  
  
"ENOUGH!" a loud voice yelled, followed by a powerful blast of golden energy from the ground that almost struck Hiccup and Toothless. The six Riders quickly paused mid-flight to take a closer look at the source, revealing that Nicarlet had joined his forces on the ground, the top of his staff glowing gold in a manner that made it clear that was the source of the last attack.  
  
"Do you think this will achieve anything?" Nicarlet yelled up at the Riders with an indignant glare. "Your dragons are our creatures-!"  
  
His rant was cut short when a dark blue figure dashed in from the side and sent Nicarlet sprawling off to the right just as the Deathsong fired a blast of amber at him. The amber just missed the Drationan leader and his 'saviour', but it soon became clear that Nicarlet wasn't going to be allowed to go free when he found himself with a different blue dragon glaring down at him, along with the fawn-clad Rider on its back.  
  
"What you need to realise, Nicarlet," the Doctor said as he sat astride Sullivan, staring coolly at the Drationans' leader as the other Riders flew desperately around above them, "is that everything moves on; just because you created the dragons doesn't mean that you _control_ the dragons."  
  
"Doctor," Nicarlet glared at the Time Lord. "You think that this makes any difference?"  
  
"No," the Doctor replied. "I just choose not to let you die because it's easier to negotiate with a known party than have to worry about finding someone else to talk with when you're dead."  
  
"The dragons are ours; I will not-!"  
  
"These dragons are free creatures who do _not_ deserve to be taken from this planet just to fulfil your own plans," the Doctor retorted, placing a hand on Sullivan's neck as he looked at the Drationan leader. "You cannot just take them from this planet-"  
  
"We created them; it is our right-!"  
  
"Nobody has the right to make living things do anything," the Doctor said, glancing back as the assembled dragons continued to fight, the wild dragons lashing out at both the trained dragons and the Drationan soldiers trying to capture them, barely restraining a wince at the Screaming Death's latest roar. "Your plan was ambitious, but you should have contented yourself with the scale of your original achievement; all you've achieved by coming back here is show yourselves to be fundamentally petty individuals who can't appreciate the true scale of your own victory. If you had left the dragons to flourish on your own, this would have been the most remarkable feat of genetic engineering I've ever witnessed, but as it is, you undermined that plan for your own petty ambitions-"  
  
"ENOUGH!" Nicarlet yelled, raising his staff as though about to fire another blast at the Doctor, only for Sullivan to grab the staff out of Nicarlet's hands and break it in half with a firm bite.  
  
"I think that's enough of that," the Doctor smiled in satisfaction, patting Sullivan's neck as Nicarlet glared indignantly at the Time Lord. "If we could just-"  
  
As other the Drationans started to fire in the Doctor's direction, Sullivan took to the air once again, launching a last blast of hot water at Nicarlet before turning his attention to the ongoing battle. The Tide Glider soon focused on weaving his way through the aerial battle, launching a series of scalding hot water blasts at the three large dragons to force them into the more dangerous fire-blasts from the other Riders, but the laser blasts from the Drationans made it hard for any of them to really focus on the task of taking down the larger dragons.  
  
"There's too many of these things!" Turlough yelled desperately, as a laser blast nearly skimmed Alcatraz's wing. "We have to-!"  
  
A loud and unfamiliar roar filled the air, followed by a blast of fire that struck the Riders as resembling a strange mix of their own dragons, before a shape crashed into the area that had been used as the dragon cages just a few moments ago. The Riders only just had time to realise that the shape that had crushed the cages looked like the Drationan fighter they'd shot down earlier before the source of the roar was soon revealed as a new dragon landed in the middle of the battlefield, as long as a Monstrous Nightmare but with a bulk that put those watching in mind of a Snafflefang, glaring at the three large dragons with a ferocious gleam in its eyes.  
  
"What the _Hell_?" Snotlout said, the battle suddenly paused as all combatants stared at the new arrival. It had the hard hide of a Boulder-class dragon, but it was a deep blue colour with an intermittent smoothness that put those watching in mind of a Tidal dragon rather than a Boulder. The creature had a wide but pointed mouth that resembled a strange mix of a Night Fury and a Monstrous Nightmare, a line of spikes on its back that resembled those on a Zippleback apart from being sharper at the top, and a 'frill' of bony spikes around the back of its head that looked like a Deadly Nadder's. Its tail and neck were of a reasonable length without being as long as the Nightmare or Zippleback, its teeth were sharp without protruding significantly, and it had a faint ring of spines around its tail that resembled a Nadder.  
  
"What in the world-?" Fishlegs began uncertainly.  
  
" _Kamelion_!" the Doctor grinned in understanding.  
  
"That's _Kamelion_?" Turlough looked at the Doctor incredulously as he brought Alcatraz up into position beside Sullivan.  
  
"Remember, he's composed of block transfer computations rather than physical matter up to a point; he might remain human-sized for the most part, but he _can_ become larger if he needs to," the Doctor smiled, as the new dragon swept its tail to knock the nearest Drationans off their feet. "When I sent him a telepathic signal from the ship, I must have subconsciously given him information about the Riders' dragons; he's manifesting as an amalgamation of all of their best traits based on my own impression of them."  
  
"And that's safe?" Turlough said, remembering to lower his voice as the other Riders looked at the new arrival in shock. "I thought he was still-"  
  
"True, but for the moment, my mind's still in sync with the dregs of power from the telepathic matrix the Drationans were using to control the dragons," the Doctor explained with a smile. "Their own natural telepathy was too weak for them to tap it properly, but with a bit of concentration I was able to boost my existing link to Kamelion enough so that I'm able to temporarily overwhelm every other signal here; for the next couple of hours, nothing can break my link to him."  
  
"That's… good," Turlough nodded tentatively as he watched the dragon-Kamelion unleash a powerful blast that looked like a flaming rock at the remaining dragon cages, smashing them with a force that put Turlough in mind of a meteor strike.  
  
"Oh yeah!" the twins yelled as Barf and Belch released a new wave of gas and sent a new wave of Drationans flying backwards. While Turlough and Alcatraz joined Fishlegs and Meatlug in firing smaller flaming rocks at their enemy forces, Toothless, Stormfly and Hookfang released a new wave of fire at the three large dragons in the air. Another blast of water from Sullivan left the three dragons with damp heads, followed by another powerful burst of flame from Kamelion's new form that forced the dragons down.  
  
" _Wow_ ," Fishlegs said, looking at Kamelion as the hybrid dragon looked solemnly at the three fallen large dragons. "That is… _incredible_."  
  
"Where did that thing _come_ from?" Tuffnut asked.  
  
"I'll explain later," the Doctor said, before turning his attention to Nicarlet, who was glaring up at the Doctor with the cool indignation he was used to seeing from those foes he defeated without killing. "In the meantime, I believe we have things to talk about?"


	20. Departing the Edge

"OK," Hiccup grinned nonchalantly at the Drationans as the Riders gathered around their defeated opponents, "I take it we're clear on the terms?"

"Quite," Nicarlet glared coolly at Hiccup, the other Drationans alternating their gazes between defeated stares at their dejected leader and bitter glares at the Riders. "And you… trust me to adhere to these terms?"

"Your weapons have been lost, the data you gathered has been destroyed, your ship has no weapons left if you decide to come back, and if you _ever_ return to these islands, you now know that the dragons will be defended; you frankly have no choice _but_ to agree with our terms," the Doctor affirmed, looking at Nicarlet with one of those cool glares that reminded Turlough that his friend was centuries old and had a personality to go with it. "You have suffered a devastating defeat when you had the element of surprise; do you really think you'll fare any better now that these people know what to expect?"

"Exactly," Hiccup affirmed, his nonchalant grin being replaced by a cool glare as he looked at the Drationan leader. "I don't care _what_ role you allegedly played in creating our dragons, and frankly I don't give a crap what you did or not; you're not taking _any_ of these dragons."

"Not even-?"

" _No_ ," Astrid said, the axe clenched in her hand shifting position as she looked coolly at the Drationans. "You tried to take our dragons; consider yourself lucky that Hiccup's letting you leave alive."

"And I'd like you remind you that Hiccup's offer basically runs out if you're here after the sun goes down?" Snotlout smirked in satisfaction, Hookfang letting out a foreboding grumble as he squatted behind his rider. "Count yourself lucky we didn't let our powerhouse over here go Green Death on you."

"Green-?" Nicarlet began.

" _Not_ important," Fishlegs said, even the overweight Viking looking at the Drationan with blatant contempt. "You heard our terms; you can get out of the archipelago and leave these islands alone, or we'll see about bringing your last trio of prisoners back here to destroy those last ships of yours and you'll be basically stuck here forever."

"You wouldn't-" one of Nicarlet's shoulders began.

"Watch us," Tuffnut grinned. "Hey, I'd be happy to just have Barf and Belch blow those things up with a bit of gas, but like Fishlegs said, you've got a lot more angry dragons out there who'd be happy to deal with you-"

" _But_ ," the Doctor cut the male twin off, "if you choose to leave now, we can pass this off as an… unfortunate turn of events… and nobody will have to suffer any further."

"If you honestly think that we will be faced with no repercussions for coming back empty-handed-?"

"Just tell whoever gives you all orders that the dragons died out before you got here; who's gonna care about something that didn't work?" Ruffnut shrugged.

"Well said, Ruffnut," the Doctor nodded at her before looking back at Nicarlet. "In any case, whatever records you've made so far have already been wiped, so as far as your superiors are concerned, you found nothing, and I've already… altered your logs so that any information you had about the dragons' location will be lost once you return home."

"…Who are you, Doctor?" Nicarlet looked at the Time Lord with a new sense of curiosity. "How can you know so much about how my people operate when your society is so-?"

"I am a traveller of great knowledge and experience, Nicarlet; _that_ is all you need to know," the Doctor folded his arms and continued to stare coolly at Nicarlet. "Now leave these islands alone, and _never return_."

Nicarlet stared back at the Doctor in frustration for a few moments, until he finally turned around and led his people back to the dented remains of his remaining ship. The other dragons occasionally growled and bared their teeth at the Drationans as they walked back into the ship, but eventually the remaining Drationans had all returned to their ship. As the door closed behind them, the ship's rear engines glowed faintly as it rose up from the land and into the sky, before it turned around and flew off over the horizon. The Doctor would run his own check later to confirm that their visitors had returned to space rather than remaining on the planet, but for the moment he felt safe assuming that they had were no longer humanity's problem.

"Huh," Hiccup looked over at the Doctor. "Am I the only one thinking that felt like it was a bit too easy in the end?"

"The advantage of dealing with cowards, Hiccup," the Doctor grinned over at the young Viking. "The Drationans came here thinking that they would have a clear advantage over everything your people and the dragons could throw at them, and they learned that they were farm from ready for what you were truly capable of."

"Oh yeah!" Snotlout grinned, flexing his muscles and grinning up at the part of the sky where the ship had vanished. "We bad! Snotlout, Snotlout, oy oy- _what_?"

Glancing over, the Doctor and Turlough smiled when they saw what had drawn the short Viking's attention, as the large mix-and-match dragon that had been standing with the others suddenly surrounded by a whirling vortex of blue light. There was a brief flare as the light intensified, and then it faded away to reveal a dull silver figure with a strange green circle on its chest, clearly too thin to just be someone wearing a strange kind of armour.

"Ah." The Doctor smiled around at the stunned Riders. "Everyone, this is… Kamelion."

"…Kamelion?" Ruffnut repeated, looking at the silver man incredulously.

"How did-?" Fishlegs began, waving his arms in shock.

"Kamelion is a… he is the last of a race of spirits," the Doctor explained. "I rescued him from an old enemy of mine some time ago, but while we all consider him a friend, he is bound by his nature to always obey the strongest mind in his vicinity."

"Neat!" Tuffnut grinned.

"It is not," Kamelion said as he looked over at the male twin, with an expression on his face that looked surprisingly solemn for his usual frozen features. "I have fallen victim to many external influences during my time with the Doctor; I have vowed to remain in our ship until I am certain that it is safe for me to become a regular part of our travels, and only leave when my fellows can confirm my safety from dangerous forces."

"Ah," Tuffnut said, nodding tentatively.

"So basically, you're forced to be a slave against your will if you're near anyone who's… what exactly do you mean by 'strongest mind'?" Astrid asked, looking uncertainly at the silver man.

"An individual of great intellect, personality and force of will," Kamelion explained. "The Doctor is commonly a good example of this, but I value his desire for me to at least try to become free outside of the demands of my nature, even if that same nature hinders any attempt at growth."

"Whoa," Hiccup looked regretfully at Kamelion for a moment, before he assumed a more curious expression. "Hold on; if it's dangerous for you to come out because someone else might take you over, what are you doing here?"

"I was able to use the Drationans' ship to essentially boost my own existing link to Kamelion so that it would overwhelm any other potential bonds he might form until we could deal with this situation," the Doctor explained. "It's not a long-term solution, but given the potential scale of the threat if the Drationans stole your dragons, I felt that it would be best to ensure we could have all hands on deck."

"That's why he looked like such a… _mix_ of dragons, isn't it?" Fishlegs looked between the Doctor and Kamelion with a smile. "When you boosted that link you basically… showed him our dragons somehow?"

"Excellent observation," the Doctor nodded at Fishlegs. "I will confess I wasn't entirely planning it, but my link to Kamelion goes beyond most conscious thought; he must have drawn on my impressions of all your dragons to bring together their best qualities in a particularly powerful form."

"What was that like?" Fishlegs looked eagerly over at Kamelion. "I mean, to actually _be_ a dragon-!"

"It is not an experience I can adequately explain to you, especially since it is not an entirely accurate description," Kamelion replied. "When I assume an appearance, I only take on what information is required for me to create a convincing impersonation, and in this case I was attempting a most unconventional assemblage."

"…Yeah, we'll take your word for it," Hiccup nodded tentatively at the strange silver figure.

"By the way," Turlough looked over at the Doctor, "after everything Nicarlet told us about how they _found_ that ship, did you… work out where it came from? If they didn't make it, I mean?"

"Actually, I did," the Doctor nodded at his companion with a smile. "That ship was Exxilon technology."

"Is that… significant?" Turlough asked, after taking a moment to confirm he hadn't heard of them himself.

"Significant?" the Doctor repeated with an incredulous grin. "Turlough, the Exxilons created one of the seven hundred wonders of the universe!"

"The what?" the Vikings asked.

"Just examples of construction that were so exceptional other civilisations have no true idea how they created such things even centuries after the original culture was lost," the Doctor explained with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Exxilon technology was capable of telepathically linking to those who would use it, but they travelled so long ago that they had limited actual use for weapons as they didn't often encounter other groups capable of fighting against them in the first place. An Exxilon scout must have come to the Drationan home and been driven back by the natives; if their interaction with the Tarl is typical, they may have expected the Drationans to be less of a challenge than they were…"

"The Tarl?" Astrid asked.

"Another race I encountered in my travels before I met Turlough," the Doctor explained with a nonchalant shrug. "They were nearly made to host an Exxilon camp, but I helped the Tarl drive them off and destroy that outpost."

"So…" Hiccup put in, "if these Exxilons were that brilliant… could they have done that 'genetic engineering' stuff you told us about?"

"They may have had the potential to do so, anyway," the Doctor nodded. "Certainly Exxilon culture had developed a range of technology capable of manipulating minds, so it's not unreasonable to assume that they had the ability to alter biology in the manner needed to create dragons… their technology certainly had _some_ kind of mutative effect on them…"

"What-?" Ruffnut began.

"He's basically said 'Yes, the Exxilons could do that', so just smile, nod, and leave it at that," Turlough clarified for the female twin.

"OK," Hiccup said, looking curiously at the Doctor. "I can accept that I'm probably never going to understand more than the basics about how these Drationans were able to use whatever they got from those Exxilons to actually _create_ dragons, but there's one more practical detail that I still don't understand. I can get that the Drationans created the Dragon Eye lenses and scattered them around here to gather information about the dragons, but why would they leave the Dragon Eye itself here so that we could use it rather than taking it away in the first place?"

"One of those little questions we may never be able to answer," the Doctor shrugged. "Maybe one of the original Drationan research team left the Eye behind by accident, maybe someone in these islands back then managed to create their own version after somehow seeing the Drationans' original Eye in action… any answers we can come up are just guesses, but there are possibilities."

"Eh; we've got it, so it works for me," Snotlout shrugged.

"Never thought I'd say this to _you_ , but I agree," Astrid nodded at him. "We have the Eye now; that's what matters."

"So… now that the Drationans are gone, what are you going to do now?" Fishlegs looked at the Doctor, Turlough and Kamelion with a curious smile. "If you want to stick around-"

"The offer is appreciated, but we… well, we have a long journey ahead of us," the Doctor said, reaching over to stroke Sullivan's nose. "If you can just clean things up here, Turlough, Kamelion and I will get back to the Edge and gather our equipment, and then…"

"You're off?" Astrid looked at the Doctor and Turlough in surprise. "Just like that?"

"We'll make sure that Sullivan and Alcatraz are safe before we leave, I assure you," the Doctor said, before he turned to look around at the other Riders. "You've been good friends, and we've appreciated the chance to work with you, but Turlough and I have our own path we have to follow. As much as we have enjoyed the chance to know Sullivan and Alcatraz, they can't be part of our lives once we move on from these islands."

"But it's been…" Turlough began tentatively, voice trailing before Alcatraz butted his head against Turlough's back, prompting Turlough to look back at the dragon with a warm smile. "Well… it's been brilliant."

"It's been… good to know you too," Hiccup said, walking up to the Doctor and holding out his hand.

"You're welcome," the Doctor said, shaking Hiccup's hand in turn before he turned around and climbed back onto Sullivan. "Thank you again for such a… unique experience."

With those final words, the Doctor and Sullivan took off into the air once again, Turlough and Alcatraz just behind them, the large form of Kamelion's amalgamated dragon state hot on their heels.

"Well," Hiccup looked around at his friends after even Kamelion had faded from view. "I think we can all agree that even _Gobber_ may find this one hard to believe, right?"

"Freaky scaly guys with big tusks who talk about how they created dragons and came to these islands in flying ships?" Tuffnut shrugged. "If I told that, I'm not sure _I'd_ believe me if I hadn't seen any of it."

"…Right," Astrid nodded at him before she looked back at Hiccup. "So what are you thinking?"

"That we keep this _particular_ experience to ourselves," Hiccup said firmly.

"What?" Snotlout looked at his cousin indignantly. "You mean we can't even-"

"What is telling anyone going to accomplish apart from giving people bragging rights, Snotlout?" Hiccup cut him off. "We can't even really prove that the Drationans were ever here in the first place, and even if we can, does it do anyone any good to learn that the dragons were basically created by somebody else?"

"…Hiccup's right," Astrid nodded, as she walked up to stand beside him. "Can you imagine how some people would react if they knew about this? Some people would just panic at the idea that there's someone out there advanced enough to create dragons, some people might try and recreate those experiments here with no idea what they're actually trying to do, the hunters could become even more focused on us trying to get us to tell them more-"

"When we don't actually _know_ anything?" Tuffnut protested.

"No, she's right," Fishlegs nodded. "We had enough trouble with the Outcasts trying to get Hiccup to teach them how to train dragons; if we give anyone the _slightest_ idea that we met the people who actually made dragons what they are… well, nobody's going to believe us no matter _how_ often we tell them that they've moved on."

"Even if we tell them that we don't know where they went?" Snotlout pointed out.

"Would any of the hunters we've run into believe that?"

"…Yeah, good point," Snotlout nodded grudgingly. "So, we keep this whole mess between us?"

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded, indicating the surrounding wreckage with a shrug. "So, let's make sure there's nothing here that anyone could use against us later, and then we can just get back to the Edge."

"And the Doctor and Turlough?" Ruffnut asked.

"Like the Doctor said," Hiccup smiled, "they've got their own path to take; all we can do is follow their example and do our best."

* * *

"You didn't do anything."  
  
"Mmm?" the Doctor turned around to look at where Turlough and Alcatraz were now flying alongside him, Sullivan having slowed to a more reasonable pace that the bulkier dragon could more easily keep up with as Kamelion flew a few metres above.  
  
"About… well, the dragons, I mean," Turlough clarified, indicating their new companions. "I mean, I feel safe assuming Sullivan and Alcatraz aren't expected to join us in the TARDIS, but after all your concerns about the future of the dragons on this planet-"  
  
"I was not going to let an intelligent species become slaves to the Drationans just because it would have been historically convenient, Turlough," the Doctor looked coolly at his friend, before his expression softened into a wistful smile. "And besides… do you realise how often I find something like this that actually _works_?"  
  
"Like this?"  
  
"Two species, one a fully sentient humanoid race and the other a semi-sentient species with some distinct advantage, that have managed to form a truly beneficial partnership with no ulterior motive on either side?" the Doctor clarified, patting Sullivan's neck with one hand and indicating Alcatraz with the other. "These two have no reason to be here, but they chose to bond with us out of gratitude, just as Hiccup and his friends have successfully trained and bonded with their own dragons, and even after so many years together we saw nothing to indicate that they take that bond for granted. I appreciate that leaving the dragons here is a risk to the future, but if we can trust anyone with the power to decide what will become of the dragons, I think we can both agree that Hiccup isn't the kind of man who'll abuse that sort of power?"  
  
"That's…" Turlough began, before he sighed and nodded, looking down at Alcatraz with a wistful smile of his own. "That's a good point."  
  
"I don't know what will unfold for this area in the future, but I feel safe enough assuming that Hiccup will do the right thing for the dragons and his people if the time comes for him to make a choice for the good of all," the Doctor said, looking back at Kamelion as their fellow companion flew above him before he turned his attention back to Turlough, indicating the open ocean ahead of them with a grin. "Anyway, we have to get back to the TARDIS before the Riders leave that island, and obviously Sullivan and Alcatraz can't come with us, but I trust there are no objections to a final flight before we have to say goodbye?"  
  
"Why not?" Turlough smiled, squeezing his heels briefly into Alcatraz's side as Sullivan took off at an accelerated speed once again, the larger boulder-class dragon only just able to keep up.  
  
If this was going to be Turlough's last flight with a dragon, he was going to enjoy every last minute of it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: To satisfy your curiosity, the Exxilons featured in the Third Doctor TV storyline "Death to the Daleks" (incidentally, Sarah Jane Smith's first encounter with the Daleks), and also appeared in the Fourth Doctor audio "The Exxilons".
> 
> 2: That's the main body of this story finished, but there's still an epilogue that will allow a later Doctor to learn the answer to certain crucial questions, which I hope will be of interest…


	21. Epilogue: The Hidden World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1: This jumps to quite a few lifetimes later for the Doctor, but when it occurs for the Riders should be clear soon enough.
> 
> 2: On a minor note, when the Doctor mentions Adamantine, she's talking about the events of the novel "Molten Heart", where the TARDIS materialised in an underground civilisation that didn't even have a _concept_ of anything 'outside' their immediate world until shortly before the Doctor arrived when their equivalent of a scientist began an expedition to the surface. The reference to meeting Ace is another shout-out to a novel, specifically "At Childhood's End", when the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace meets the Thirteenth Doctor while investigating missing children from Ace's home town.

"A cave, Doc?" Graham looked apprehensively at the Time Lady as she looked approvingly at the view on the scanner. "After the last time?"

"This isn't _like_ the last time, Graham," the Doctor looked back at her friend with a reassuring grin. "We're not on an unknown like Adamantine where we're going to end up upending the world as they knew it; this is Earth, somewhere in the North Atlantic-"

"Hold on; _in_ the North Atlantic?" Yaz looked at the Doctor in surprise. "We're not an island or something?"

"Not exactly," the Doctor grinned, before she pulled the lever to open the door. "From what the scanner's told me… well, come on out and take a look; this is something you have to see to believe."

The three humans looked uncertainly at each other for a moment, but when the Doctor walked nonchalantly out of the ship, they each sighed in grim resignation and followed the apparently young woman out of it.

As soon as they were outside, Graham, Ryan and Yaz stared in awe at their latest materialisation point. The TARDIS had materialised underground, but there were elaborate stalagmites all around the ground and descending rock formations coming in from above, most of the rocks being drenched by a vast waterfall from above. A brief glance upwards was all that was needed to confirm that the water was coming from a vast hole above them, with sunlight coming in from that same hole.

"Whoa…" Graham said, whistling in awe as he looked around.

"Hey, look at that!" Ryan called out, indicating a tunnel off to the side of the cavern. "Think there's more to this place than… well, all this?"

"Could be…" the Doctor said, looking thoughtfully around the cavern. "This place gives the impression that it's been here a while; no immediate idea how it could have come together, but-"

"Doc," Ryan cut her off, looking at the water behind the Time Lady, "don't want to alarm you, but there's something in that pool…"

"Really?" the Doctor said, turning around in curiosity just as the thing in the water poked its head fully out. The three humans behind her gasped in shock at the sight of the long-necked creature with large blue fins around its head, putting them in mind of some kind of dinosaur, a snarl in its throat as it looked at them, but the Doctor's curious grin just grew broader in recognition.

" _Sullivan_!" she said, practically laughing with joy as she looked up at the blue-skinned 'sea-snake'. "What are you doing here?"

"Sullivan?" Ryan and Yaz repeated as they exchanged glances, before looking back to see that Graham was just as bemused as they were to see the Doctor smiling so broadly at the whatever-it-was.

"Seriously, what made you come down here?" the Doctor said, looking at the creature with an ever-growing smile that put Yaz in mind of the Doctor's initial reaction when they'd met that 'Ace' girl recently. "I know that it's been a while, but you liked swimming in the _oceans_ ; why would you move into this-?"

The blue thing snapped impatiently at the Doctor, who just stepped back with a grin.

"Touchy today, aren't we?" she smiled at the creature, before she took a deep breath and held out her arm towards it, waiting patiently as the growling creature moved its head forward and took a cautious sniff. For a moment the creature fell silent, looking curiously at the Doctor for a moment, before it seemed to let out a more pleased-sounding 'growl' and practically leapt on the Time Lord.

"That's it!" the Doctor grinned, staggering back against the TARDIS as the blue creature's tongue eagerly covered her face, its initially fierce growls now the sound of joy. "Yes, it's good to see you too, old boy; glad you found somewhere safe…"

As Sullivan finally stepped back from her, he looked over her shoulder and tilted his head as he looked curiously at the trio gathered around the TARDIS.

"Don't worry; you never knew them before now," the Doctor explained, patting the creature's snout affectionately before she turned back to look at her friends. "Graham, Ryan, Yaz, this is Sullivan, an old friend; I named him after an older friend."

"Uh… right," Graham nodded tentatively, looking uncertainly at the creature before focusing on the Doctor. "And… what is he?"

"A Tide Glider," the Doctor explained with a cool grin. "He's a dragon."

" _Dragon_?" the others repeated, looking at Sullivan with newly eager grins.

"But that's-" Yaz began incredulously.

"Nothing is impossible, Yaz; it just hasn't turned up yet… and that's just from your perspective; I found out about these guys a few centuries ago," the Doctor grinned, before she looked more thoughtfully at Sullivan. "Although I have to admit, I find myself wondering how Sullivan even got here-"

Even over the sound of the waterfalls, a faint roar reached the Doctor's ears from further up, which sounded even at this distance like it was a group of different dragons roaring at once. Sullivan turned his head to look curiously up at the hole above them, and a few other dragons emerged from the water to follow his gaze.

"Oh, _wow_ …" Ryan said, a smile forming on his own face as he looked at the other dragons coming from the water. "So… he's not the only one?"

"Sullivan?" the Doctor looked at her friend. "No, he's my special dragon partner, but he's just one of many; I met a few other people who- _Stormfly_!" She grinned again as she saw a distinctive blue-and-yellow spiked dragon fly past the TARDIS and towards the hole. "What's she-?"

The Doctor was prevented from making further speculation when Sullivan grabbed her by the collar of her jacket and practically tossed her onto his back as the dragon flew out of the water and up towards the hole. The Doctor managed to call out reassurances to her panicked friends that she'd be back soon before she focused on taking in her surroundings as her old friend took her up through the water. She was surprised to see that the rock formation around the 'walls' of the chasm put her more in mind of an inverted volcanic island than the chasm she'd initially assumed she was looking at, as though this whole place had been subject to a particularly unique geological event-

The Doctor didn't have time to consider her surroundings any further before Sullivan grabbed her jacket once again (she might need to take a look at her clothing once she was back in the TARDIS) and tossed her off his back. The Doctor had just started to panic when she felt herself hit a wooden deck and quickly rolled back up to her feet, grateful that her current body was one of the young ones; even her immediate predecessor would have taken a bit of a knock, and 'Joseph' would have had the wind knocked out of him at best.

Looking around her new surroundings, she saw a familiar black dragon sitting at one end of the boat, his body curled protectively around two small figures, while the Nadder that Sullivan had apparently decided to chase was now perched on the other end of the ship. A brown-haired man in dark leather and a blonde woman wearing a white-furred cloak over a blue top and brown leather skirt stood in front of the children and the dragons, an axe in the woman's hand and a sword in the man's as they took in the Doctor's presence.

"Who…?" the man began, only for his voice to trail off as he looked at the Tide Glider behind the Doctor. "…is that Sullivan?"

"That's him," the Doctor grinned, her smile growing even broader as the last pieces fell into place; her eighth self's bouts of amnesia made some periods of recollection before that lifetime difficult, but this particular encounter had been very distinctive. "And you're… Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, am I right? Great to… meet you at last; my… _uncle_ told me all about you!"

"Your… uncle?" the blonde woman- _Astrid_ , the Doctor reminded herself- said, slightly lowering her axe as she looked at the Doctor.

"You knew him as the Doctor?" the Doctor grinned, hoping she'd calculated the ages right; from what she remembered of her fifth body's physical age, it shouldn't be too hard for anyone to believe she was Mr Cricket's niece if they assumed that he'd had an older brother or two somewhere in the family tree. "You met him when he had… Turlough as his apprentice, I believe?"

"The Doc… Turl… of course, the _Drationans_!" Hiccup said, his expression shifting to a broad smile as he looked at the Doctor. "And you're his niece?"

"Just call me Doctor too, if you don't mind; most of my family have gone by that name, although I will admit I'm the first woman to aspire to the title," the Doctor grinned back at Hiccup before she looked over at the woman. "And you'd be Astrid Hofferson? Or is it Haddock now?"

"It is," Astrid said, looking behind herself with a slight smile. "Hey, it's OK; she's… well, she's related to an old friend."

Glancing in the direction that Astrid had spoken, the Doctor saw the black form of Toothless raising his wing slightly to allow two small figures to walk out from under it. The brown-haired pigtailed girl was wearing basically a double of the outfit the Doctor remembered Astrid wearing during their first meeting, except that the top was a darker colour, and the fair-haired blonde boy was wearing a light brown tunic and darker brown trousers.

"Well… Doctor," Hiccup smiled tentatively at the woman, "these are our children, Zephyr and Nuffink Haddock."

"Pleasure to meet you both," the Doctor smiled at the children, crouching down to smile politely at the children as she indicated the Tide Glider looking in over the edge of the boat. "As your father said, I'm the Doctor, and this is Sullivan; your father helped… my uncle… train him when they met a few years ago."

"Your uncle trained dragons?" Nuffink looked at her with a grin.

"And he didn't do too bad a job," Astrid added, a thoughtful smile on her face as she looked between the Doctor and Sullivan. "Although I have to ask, how did you find the Hidden World?"

"Hidden World?" the Doctor repeated curiously, looking back at the deep chasm Sullivan had just flown out of, water spray making it hard to properly make out the edges, before she turned back to her two old friends (who now saw her as a stranger, she had to remind herself). "I take it there's more to this place than some deep hole in the ocean, right?"

"…Pretty much," Hiccup nodded.

"Really?" Astrid looked at Hiccup with a teasing grin. "We haven't even told the other Riders where this place is-"

"You already told her the name, she's already found it by accident, and the Doctor never gave any sign that he didn't deserve our trust; we might as well trust his niece and answer her questions," Hiccup observed to the blonde Viking before he turned back to the blonde Time Lady. "This is… well, like Astrid said, we call it the Hidden World."

"And where does that name come from?" the Doctor asked, trying to sound professional even as a part of her wanted to grin eagerly at the melodramatic title.

"My father thought it was basically the place were all dragons came from," Hiccup explained. "I'm not sure how it fits in to your uncle's idea that the Drationans… well, _brought_ the dragons here from somewhere else, but maybe they… I mean, they had to leave the dragons _somewhere_ when they arrived, right?"

"And a vast underground cavern would be a good place to leave the eggs to hatch…" the Doctor nodded thoughtfully, turning her gaze back to the chasm. "Yeah, that makes sense; the Drationans found or created this cavern as a secure environment for the dragons, and when it got too small they migrated out…"

She looked back at Hiccup and Astrid with new curiosity. "How did you find it?"

"Toothless tracked it down somehow after he found… well, her," Hiccup indicated the rocks along the side of the chasm. Looking around, the Doctor saw a white dragon that looked almost exactly like Toothless apart from its colour, looking at the ship with a slight apprehension in its manner.

"Her?" the Doctor repeated curiously. "She's Toothless's mate?"

"Last other Fury out there, as far as we know," Hiccup nodded.

"And she doesn't have a name?"

"She seemed so wild I wasn't sure she'd really accept one," Hiccup explained. "We got to a point where she tolerates us for Toothless's sake, but I don't think she'd be comfortable living with us."

"But she _looks_ incredible," Zephyr said, looking over the edge of the boat and waving at the white dragon. "And all the… Night Lights!"

"Night Lights?" the Doctor repeated, before following the little girl's gaze to see three small black-and-white dragons clambering over the larger white dragon to look at them. "Ah; nice name."

"Anyway, Hiccup and I went into the Hidden World once shortly after Toothless found it, but… well, the dragons were very territorial, and Toothless and Stormfly only just got us out safely," Astrid explained. "Maybe they _could_ have been persuaded to accept us eventually, but we just… it was safer to make sure they were out of the way of anyone else who might try and abuse them."

"And so they're all down there?" the Doctor looked back at the chasm in the ground with raised eyebrows. "Not just Toothless, Stormfly and Sullivan, but Hookfang and all the old crowd?"

"Pretty much everyone, as far as we know," Hiccup nodded. "We certainly haven't seen many dragons since Toothless led them all into the Hidden World, and by that point Berk had basically taken in most of the wild dragons we could find…"

He sighed as he looked wistfully into the hole, before Toothless nudged him in the side with what almost sounded like a scolding growl.

"Yeah, yeah," Hiccup smiled over at the dragon before looking back at the Doctor. "Anyway… well, if you're anything like your uncle, I take it we can trust you to keep this secret?"

"You have my word," the Doctor nodded solemnly at Hiccup, before she gave him a teasing smile. "Although… if you wouldn't mind asking Toothless if he could help me out with something?"

"Such as?" Astrid asked.

"I just have a few other friends with me, and I thought they might appreciate a treat…"

* * *

Looking at Ryan as he kept a tight grip on Alcatraz's horns, the Doctor wondered how Turlough would react to the idea that his dragon's only other rider would be another companion of hers, but however she looked at it Alcatraz was the best choice for Ryan. The dragon was fast enough that Ryan wouldn't feel he was missing out on anything by being given a deliberately slow dragon, but the various horns and rough skin gave Ryan something to hold on to beyond the dragon's ears, which might have at least hurt his ride while accommodating Ryan's condition.  
  
Hiccup had been a little uncomfortable at the notion of asking Toothless to bring more dragons to the surface for this flight, but after the Doctor had assured him that this was just a one-time treat for her friends, the young Viking chief had agreed to talk with Toothless about it, and his old partner had swiftly agreed with the proposal. Toothless had flown back into the chasm for a few moments while Sullivan took the Doctor down to her friends, and the Night Fury had soon appeared alongside the TARDIS accompanied by Alcatraz, Meatlug, and an unfamiliar silver-coloured dragon that Hiccup and Astrid had later identified as Windshear, which had apparently belonged to an old ally of theirs and was more comfortable with female Riders anyway.  
  
Graham was sticking close to Ryan while they were in the air, which worked out rather well as Meatlug and Alcatraz were still pretty close in terms of speed, but Yaz and Windshear had swiftly hit it off on their merits. The trainee police officer was still keeping a tight hold on Windshear's neck, but Windshear seemed to be comfortable coping with the woman's presence on her back and pacing herself during the flight.  
  
Looking at Hiccup and Astrid as Toothless and Stormfly led the flight, the Doctor smiled as she saw Toothless's mate and children flying alongside the black dragon, the presence of those tiny dragons reminding her of the joy she'd felt when she first saw the baby Aggedors shortly before saying goodbye to Erimem on Peladon.  
  
It was slightly sad that Hiccup and the residents of Berk had been forced to separate from their loyal companions after so long, but the Doctor could appreciate the sentiment that had motivated them to part company; how often had she agreed to keep secrets from the rest of the time periods she'd visited on the request of her particular allies? The mere fact that Toothless in particular had children assured her that her old friends had done the right thing, letting the dragons make their own lives in secret without humanity trying to abuse them.  
  
It was sad that things between humans and dragons couldn't have worked out on a larger scale, but the Doctor wasn't going to object to the idea of humanity protecting another race rather than trying to fight them. Hiccup had mentioned that he and Astrid were going to see about making semi-regular visits to the dragons from now on, re-affirming their bond even if they would also maintain a suitable distance, and he had also mentioned that Berk would guard the secret of the Hidden World until man and dragon were ready to come back together.  
  
Maybe the Doctor would look up the location of the Hidden World in the twenty-first century or a later era to get a better feel for what had happened to the dragons by the time Earth was becoming more aware of the wider universe, but for the moment, she was just going to enjoy the chance to catch up with a few old friends…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3: That concludes the Doctor's association with Berk and the dragons for the foreseeable future, but I hope you enjoyed the Doctor's trip to the Barbaric Archipelago as he/she learned something truly new.


End file.
